Terrapin has become involved in several activities which have become important to us over the years.  This is our way of giving back to the communities where we have traveled and have accepted us generously.

Yayasan Anak Bahagia (Happy Child Foundation)

Four years ago, we met Robin Lim, the founder of the Yayasan. Three years ago we started carrying her Travelers Journal in our retail store. 100% of the sale of the Journal goes back to the Yayasan. We fully support her ideals.

"Birth is the most significant physical and spiritual event, for all women and their families. It begins with love, grows in commitment, and bears the fruit of courage, a newborn person. We believe that gentle childbirth sets the child on a path to health, a way of peace. On our tilting planet approximately 1,370 mothers die each day, in childbirth (about one every minute), most of these deaths are preventable. From our humble beginning project in Bali, we hope to turn this sad statistic around. We have found that transitional medicine and cultural practices in synthesis with modern medicine can lower the rate ofinfant and maternal mortality."

By purchasing this travel journal at Terrapin, supporting Yayasan Anak Bahagia, you provide a foundation for safer choices in health services. Incorporating the sacred and keeping it simple.

Sigit

Our personal project is providing our friend Sigit Sediadi with the opportunity to pursue an education after High School. We had known Sigit for six years as he was in charge of helping to take care of his aunt's guest house (the guesthouse we stay in when we are in Yogyakarta) before and after school. We spent quite a lot of time helping him with his English homework and getting to know about his life and getting to know his family. His plans after graduation were to continue to work at the guesthouse, as there were no opportunities for furthering his education, as his family could not afford it and financial aid in Indonesia is practically nonexistent. We decided to offer to fund his education, be it a university or a trade school, if he desired to continue it.

Enthusiastically he accepted and is now a 3.45 GPA student at the AMPTA School for trade and tourism. He has told us what a difference this has made in his life. He has made new friends, enjoys what he is learning, and sees the opportunities that this education will afford him. For us, this is the most rewarding of our activities in Indonesia. We always look forward to hearing from him or his family, and cannot wait to see him every time we go.