A school in Sumba

Sumba, an  island in eastern Indonesia,  is a totally remarkable place. A thin veneer of Christianity overlaying a wild and crazy animist culture. Beauty beyond compare. Ibuku is having the pleasure of building a school in Sumba, a school for training kids to work in the tourist industry, which is inevitably coming. That school is going to be all bamboo and truly beautiful. Exciting times in Sumba.

-JH

The school was founded by the Sumba Hospitality Foundation. The Foundation was established to provide hospitality and agricultural development education and to raise awareness and responsibility of young and underprivileged students, with a focus on education, protecting the environment, promoting sustainable tourism and exploring new possibilities to help the people of Sumba and surrounding islands.

The Foundation has the following to say about their hotel school, currently being built out of bamboo with the help of the builders of Ibuku:

It is our belief that Tourism can be a positive force in a poverty stricken region particularly when its community is involved in the process. It is our goal to assist in providing viable employment to Sumba’s young inhabitants and break the circle of poverty while also protecting the environment and their culture.

Our plan is to develop a self-sufficient hospitality school on the island of Sumba that will provide free vocational education for 40 students (20 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 17 and 23 years old. The students will receive full boarding and medical care during this 1 one year program.

The one year curriculum will include courses in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Computer Skills, General Life Skills, Farming and specialized Hospitality Skills in one of 4 areas: Housekeeping, Restaurant Service, Culinary or Front Office. Theoretical courses in these departments will be combined with on-the-job training at the hotel facilities of the foundation. Also included in this one year program is an internship at a Four or Five Star Hotel.