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Couple builds school in Indonesia

By next winter Terry and Jim Hathaway plan to be teaching English at a school they are now helping to build in Lombok, Indonesia.
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Jim and Terry Hathaway are raising funds to build an English as a second language school in Lombok

By next winter Terry and Jim Hathaway plan to be teaching English at a school they are now helping to build in Lombok, Indonesia.

The school, and 10-room dormitory is being constructed adjacent to a children’s home in Lombok which the couple has been helping to support for the past 10 years.

At the new school they are building, Terry says they will teach educators how to teach English, along with students who want to learn English.

In Indonesia, Jim says there is a wide disparity between rich and poor, especially among rural farm families, and in small rural villages where there aren’t any schools.

“The culture is that the oldest child is helped to get an education so they can support their family,” Jim says.

In order for that to happen, he says poor families will surrender their oldest child to an orphanage or children’s home in a larger city where there are schools. But not all schools have teachers who can teach English.

“Bhasa is the national language but English is predominantly used in business,” Jim says. “To get a job that pays more than $4 a day, or about $130 a month, you need English.”

With English and an education a person can make between $400 and $1,000 a month in Indonesia.

Taking their holiday time they have also been travelling to Lombok for the past seven years to teach English and help the poor people there.

To raise funds for the new school, the couple is holding a Project Build dinner and auction Sunday, March 5 at Calvary Church located at 625 Carson Drive.

Doors open at 5:30 and dinner is at 6 p.m.

Music will be by The Perfect Match.

Mountview Elementary School principal Rick Miller will be the inspirational speaker.

There will be both live and silent auctions, Terry says, adding that they are building the school with donations a brick at a time.

Tickets for the dinner are $10 each and available by calling the Hathaway’s at 250-398-9180.

For a $25 donation people can also buy a bundle of bricks that comes with a tax deductible receipt.

Terry says there are 20 children in the group home now and the goal is to provide dormitories for 100 students and teach English to students from elementary school age to university age.

Terry has worked as an elementary teacher in School District 27 for 37 years and retired last June out of Mountview Elementary School.

Jim is a School District 27 bus driver and also worked as a teaching assistant until retiring last year.

When Jim retires from his school bus route in June the couple plan to spend half the year teaching English at the new school in Lombok and half the year in Williams Lake where they are also volunteer leaders with Youth For Christ (YFC).

Terry leads a craft activity for youth on Tuesday afternoons at the Hot Spot. Tuesday evenings Terry and Jim lead a support group for families of divorce. Terry also facilitates the YFC’s Divorced Care for Kids program.

On their trips to Lombok over the past six years the Hathaways have also bought various crafts back with them which they sell at the Cataline Craft Fair at Christmas time and donate back to help support the children’s home.

They also fundraise independently for the school, look for people willing to help sponsor students and make personal donations annually to help support the children’s home.

They also donate time and money to help with other international projects.

“We helped to start an orphanage in the Philippines nine years ago and have seen how teaching the kids English and supporting them through university has increased their income from $1 a day to $300 to $600 a month,” Jim says.