BEATS is a small charity, with no employees, only volunteers. It maintains a close and personal relationship between its supporters and projects, so that groups and individuals are able to choose to support people and projects to which they can relate.
Or support us with regular donations to our projects or Sponsor a Child. Download our "30 days of prayer" book here!
BEATS primarily operates in Indonesia, collaborating with five organisations. We partner with GBI Church in Ambon (E Indonesia) to aid earthquake victims through home rebuilding, child sponsorship and a start-up business loan program. Additionally in Sumatra (NW Indonesia) we work alongside YSI, which conducts disaster preparedness and runs micro enterprise schemes as well as YACAN and YASAH who operate Children's Homes. YASERA helps communities with disaster preparedness along with health and development programmes in various locations in Indonesia.
BEATS have now provided funds for the rebuilding or repair of 14 houses, following the destructive earthquake in Ambon in September 2019. Simon, Olla and their 5 children are very poor; Simon grows food in their garden, and sometimes supplements this by going sea fishing to provide food for his family.
For information on how BEATS has already helped in Ambon see the information on our Ambon page.
This year BEATS have started a new partnership with YASERA, a charity working in 4 areas of Indonesia, helping to improve the position of impoverished, disaster-affected people by addressing the root causes of their vulnerability. YASERA does this by educating families about key health messages to alleviate malnutrition, campaigning against child marriage, and educating families about organic farming, financial management and business development.
BEATS are providing funds to enable YASERA to train vulnerable families over an 18 month period to raise awareness of the need for disaster preparedness and risk management.
YASERA's team (see photo) have just completed their 1st stage of PADR (Participatory Assessment of Disaster Risk) training. Following this, the team will be trained in PRA (Participatory Rural Assessment). They will then go to the Regency (district) of Karangasem in Bali, which is close to the active volcano Mt. Agung, to help the villagers assess the major hazards, risks and resources in the area.
BEATS has supplied funding to help enable YSI to run disaster preparedness training courses in Metro Manila, and Bataan in the Philippines. Both of these places are at risk of tectonic movement of the West Valley Fault.
YSI have recognised that normally, in the event of an emergency, approximately only 10% of people know what to do, 10% just panic, and the rest tend to follow someone else. By running these courses YSI aim to increase the number of people who know how to respond in an emergency, and therefore increase the survival chances of more people. Church and NGO leaders attended the course.
