Coming together for Buda!

Hello friends. I reached out to Buda, our amazing guide from our Bali trip, this past week, to ask how his family is doing in these hard times due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Not surprisingly, he is not doing so well. Luckily, his family is healthy, but is seriously struggling to make ends meet.

My husband and I have decided to help Buda out with a small donation, and I thought that there might be more of you out there that are willing and able to help as well. Even a little, when put all together, will go a long way! For this reason, I decided to set up this fundraiser.

Bali is currently on lockdown, which means everyone needs to stay inside at all times to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This also means that not only is Buda not able to do his job as a tourist guide because of the lack of tourists, but he cannot do any other job in the meantime either. As a result, Buda's family has quickly lost any means to support themselves. Buda is now resorting to selling his car to make some money for food and supplies. But he cannot afford to pay for his rent on top of that, and will have to leave his rental home and is moving himself, his wife and children to a home of extended family in a village in rural Bali. So time is of the essence. I was hoping we can get money to him before he has to leave his house.

At the moment, he cannot get any help from the goverment. It is unclear when the situation will get better and when it will be possible to start up as a guide again, since many countries whose citizens frequent Bali as tourists have shut their borders and issued a travel ban. We are fortunate enough to live in a country (Czech Republic) that has not been hit as hard by COVID-19, but know that there are thousands of people in the world that need help. You yourself may be struggling in some way or another. But if there is a small amount you could spare, I trust that Buda will be able to put this money towards easing the burden of the situation. Perhaps we could raise enough to pay for his rent for a few months (he pays USD 150 per month) so that he does not have to uproot his family completely, which would in turn ease his return into the tourist market when the time does come. I have set the goal amount to USD 800, but let's see how much we can put together.

We cannot help everyone, but I would like to at least try and help this one individual. We know Buda as a kind, generous and warm-hearted man who loves his country. Let's come together for him!