Selling Teddy Bears

Dec. 15, 2011

Before we started to sell the Teddy Bears, I had a idea to put ribbons on the Teddy and made it look better. We had 47 Teddy in the end they are all ready to be sold. I need to organize the order that we had during the Universal Children Week and I was so glad I place each order clearly and made the work more easier now. But I meet another challenge, it is a pain to do accounting! I need to reported each customer and the kind of bear he/she bought. I also need to recored the daily income and amount of teddy bears in the end of the day.  Now I understand how a shop system works and that's why they are using machine to do these job now. I sold 39 bears in the end of 2011, THANKS FOR EVERY SUPPORTER, WE WILL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!!!

Checking the Teddy Bear II

Dec. 12, 2011

We went to village and check the teddy bears today and the result was really amazing. Everyone brought the their Teddy bears to the the mat and show us their work with a big smile on their face. I was very happy with the result, we did it, after a long process and challenges. I payed them the money immediately and they were so glad with the payment after working in these hard. We both had a hard time and meet many challenges, I ask them to re-sew the bears again and again. They didn't give up and worked much more harder. I can this how hard that they put to change their life, I am helping and they are helping themselves as well. Together, we can make the world better. I really hope that I can send each of the kids go to school and improved the water system in the village. After a long time of visiting the village, I discovered that they were very easy to get sick and the problem is water. They don't have clean daily water to clean themselves after working with wast. That really worries me and I set it as a goal to work on next. 

Checking the Teddy Bears I

Dec. 9th, 2011

After the cotton finally arrived, we continued our sewing section and formed the bears in the end. I went to the village for checking how was the bears going but the people who has all the bears was not at the village this week. I couldn't check the bears but the village started to chat with me. my Indonesian was very poor that I didn't understand most of the things that they were talking. But it didn't matter that we still had a good time together by taking pictures and using body language. We both laugh so hardly and I realize how close we were. Even though we are having different cultures and language background, we still enjoy the time that we spend together. They taught me some simple Indonesia and I kept taking picture and share with them. I brought some food and we ate and share the happiness. I felt my life is meaningful in the moment, I know that I am helping them but they are helping me in the same moment. I also learned how to teach, how to be patient and nice to people. Doing Teddy Baby Project really changed my life and mind. I set the goal for myself in the future that I will study economic in college to find and solution of poverty and help more people. Teddy Baby is amazing, both the village and all the people had helped and joined the project!

Universal Children Week

Nov. 14~18, 2011

We had a workshop at school for celebrating Universal Children Week. Before the event started we had long process of preparing such as making video, decorated the workshop and making Teddy bears for example. We also planed to sell some bears during the Universal Children Week and set up the price for different size of bears. (we have three sizes, which are big, medium and small) We invited one girls and one woman from the village to come to school and sowing the processes of making Teddy bears. This was Teddy Baby Project's first show up in public, we want it to be highlighted and noticed. We explained our project to the public and sold the bears for donation. It was very helpful to have this event that we are more popular now. The girl named Mila and grandma that invited was very happy to come to school that they thought SWA is very clean and light, they also like the food at school. But we had the problems with material, the cotton still didn't arrive and our process were still stuck in sewing. Even though we had problems we were still ordered around 40 bears in the end of Universal Children Week. That was a big success for us and encourage us to keep putting effort. We had serval interviews for the newspaper during the Universal Children Week that shared the project with the people not only the school community but the entire city.

Lesson 4: Sewing II

Nov. 9th 2011

After one sewing class, here came the second one. Sewing is a very important but difficult part that we need to spend much more time on it. We were up to body and head last time, today we would go though the rest of the teddy bears' structures. Personally, I think the most difficult part is the head that there are three pieces to form and because of the shape it is very hard to control the fabric. If we didn't do the head right, the bears might not have nose and neck, the shape is very important. I check their work today, even though some of them did it wrong, they didn't mind to change and practice it. I was very impressive with that and believe that we can make this project work. In the same time, we met challenge, the cotton that we order was delay and we couldn't go on next step without cotton. Our process was stuck!

We couldn't do the drawing and teaching class today because we only had two people to come the village. I saw the kids play around with songs while we were working. They were so happy, laughing so hardly. But I felt sorry for them, they suppose to have a better tomorrow, childhood and go to school. That's why we were here, I say to myself.

lesson 3: Sewing

Nov. 7th 2011
Now we are up to our lesson 3- sewing. Because there are different sewing techniques that are going to be used in different part of the the teddy bears so we started the most common one. I was very surprised    that some of the women already have a good sewing skills. Last time we realized that the village only have one table so we brought a mat this time that we can work on it after. Everyone is very concentrated and it is hard and needs time to learn a new thing, so even though some of they didn't do the sewing perfectly, they put 100% effort to work.

The other important section for today was that we started to teach the children language that can used in the thanks card. We met a problem with working space that we only brought one mat and the children didn't have any other space to learn and draw. We put a big paper on the ground and made is as a mat to work on. Even though the working space was small and uncomfortable, the children were still excited about the drawing class and learned the language. I was very happy to see how we work together and try to create a better tomorrow.