FOR most girls in the small village of Penyalu, on the Indonesian island of Lombok, life tends to follow a well-trodden path.
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After selling food and souvenirs to tourists on the beach in childhood, girls will typically marry young, raise a family, and weave or work in the rice fields.
But a fateful meeting between one little girl and two Australian tourists 17 years ago has transformed the lives of eight young women from the village – and those of the Australians.
Bendigo couple Peter and Heather Smith were on Lombok enjoying their first overseas trip together in 2000 when they met a little girl, about eight years old, carrying a pineapple on her head as she sold the tropical fruit to beachgoers.
Heather struck up a conversation with the little girl, whose name was Tari.
“I was really sort of taken with her, she was a really sweet, quiet little thing, with this oversized t-shirt… with this little pineapple that looked big on her,” she recalls.
The following year, Heather and Peter returned for their honeymoon and again found Tari on the beach, this time selling sarongs with her cousin.
Upon their return to Australia, they thought they would like to help the young girl in some way, so the next year they returned for a third time, this trip meeting Tari’s family.
But the couple decided helping just one girl might create problems in the village, so instead decided to assist the group of girls with whom Tari worked on the beach.
Eventually, three years after they first met Tari, they set up what has become known as the Penyalu Project, providing financial assistance to the eight girls with their education.
Peter and Heather explained that establishing the project took a little time because they needed to build up that trusting relationship with the girls and the families
At that stage the girls were in primary school, and the couple thought they would provide financial assistance for fees, exams, uniforms and the like during their schooling years.
But towards the end of the secondary schooling, on one of their many visits to Penyalu, Peter and Heather asked the girls if any were thinking of going to university.
Some said they would love to, but it was too expensive.
Peter and Heather wanted to give them a hand, but knew they would not be able to do it without a little help.
“We didn’t want to disappoint them, we wanted to do something that we knew was sustainable and would work for them,” Heather said.
“So we talked about what we were doing to some family and friends and work colleagues, and in the end, we have 22 sponsors who are involved with the project… So without those people, this project wouldn’t be happening.”
“It’s not possible to be successful without a lot of other people. It’s not just about us,” Peter added.
Since the project began, two of the girls – now young women – have graduated and two are still at university, while the other four decided to take the more traditional path and have families.
The girls were the first from their village to have gone to university and the first to graduate was Natasha, now a teacher.
“She’s the happiest girl you’ve ever met now; she’s achieved her dream of becoming a teacher and we visited her at the school of her teaching, and it was really special to see her in the class and she introduced us to the little kids,” Heather said.
Peter said her old headmistress had told her she would give her job upon graduation, and she had kept that promise.
“That’s an amazing role model for the other kids, that there’s this girl from the school who went there as a little girl, who’s now teaching,” he said.
Peter and Heather intended that the project would have benefits for not only these young women, but their community as a whole.
The graduate and student nurses, Kelly and Laela, hope to one day open a healthcare clinic in their village.
In the interest of fairness, the project also provides some financial support to the women who have chosen not to attend university.
In the time that has passed since their first visit to Lombok, the Smiths have formed extremely close bonds with the eight young women and their families.
“We have a genuine love of them and that’s the same in return, as well,” Heather said.
The young women are Muslim, and Peter, Heather and their fellow sponsors are deeply disturbed by the anti-Muslim sentiment they have seen grow in the Australian community since they first formed these friendships.
“We’re very happy and very proud the Penyalu Project is supporting Muslim young women to get an education, because we and... all our sponsors, we see the person and not the religion, and this is how it should be,” Peter said.
He said their first response when they heard anti-Muslim comments was outrage, followed by pity.
“You feel sad for them; ‘You probably will never have this experience, which is an amazing wonderful experience’,” he said.
“They just want to be happy, like you and I do,” Heather added.
To see these young women achieve their dreams had been “fantastic”, Heather said.
But they feel that they have gained just as much as the eight women - Natasha, Kelly, Laela, Sandy, Tari, Sarah, Karin and Karina – have from the experience.
“They say they are very, very lucky girls - young women now, so very, very lucky young women – which is true, but we feel we’re very lucky to know them,” Peter said.
“Very lucky. It’s just amazing.”