OUR ORGANIZATIONS
Sawah Bali is an Indonesian non-profit foundation (yayasan) with the dual goals of conserving the working agricultural landscape and creating new economic opportunities for farming families. The foundation is adapting a U.S. land trust model to the culture, religion and laws of Bali. Working with local government and farmers' collectives,(subak) Sawah Bali negotiates land use agreements, teaches permaculture techniques, introduces high-value crops and low-cost natural systems, builds supply chains, and works with stakeholders who have interest in retaining Bali's culture, and a balance between it and tourism.
The foundation's long-term goal is to make agriculture in Bali a profitable, creative, healthy, growing industry, sustaining the cultural and natural heritage for the next generation.
Tri Hita Karana, the foundation of Balinese philosophy, translates literally as "the three causes of goodness". Spirituality is centered on maintaining harmonious and balanced relationships with God, with other humans, and with nature.
THK Bali sets out to realize and strengthen this concept in modern Bali through inspirational educational programs and imaginative workshops and projects based on permaculture principles. THK's community is made up of people from all over the world and of many different economic and social backgrounds.
CREATE A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR BALI
Sawah Bali and THK Bali have partnered to offer a new volunteer program for travelers seeking an immersive, educational experience on sustainable farms in a strong Balinese community. Despite being heavily touristed for decades, Bali has remarkably maintained much of its famed exotic beauty and its authentic traditional culture. However, due to rampant overdevelopment and the inequitable resource management of water favoring the tourist industry, the island is now at a tipping point.
Discouraged by the lack of profits to be made in agriculture, deteriorating environmental conditions, and their incapacity for upward mobility, many Balinese farmers are selling off their ancestral lands to developers and taking jobs in tourism. Meanwhile, public health, environmental habitats, food security, social harmony and economic parity are all suffering. To learn more about the issues, click here.
We are an international team committed to being part of a solution - not the problem. Together, Sawah Bali and THK Bali are working to introduce and transition farmers to organic and permaculture systems, and propose more diverse and profitable variety of vegetables and traditional rices.
In this time of transition, we need your help!
INSPIRE A GENERATION OF FARMERS
In many Western nations, the youth are now returning to agriculture with their education and technology to grow organic local foods, create specialty products, feel good about their career choice and autonomy, while making a decent living. This is the spirit we hope to foster in young Balinese, who now have a tremendous opportunity to create their own small businesses and change the direction of Bali's agricultural economy.
Your role - to aid the transistion and generate enthusiasm for the ideas - is absolutely critical to the success of our efforts. Your presence and passion for working on the land will have a profound effect on the Balinese (it already has!) For the first time in recent history, there will be a new option for farming families: to hold on to their sacred inherited land, continue farming, create agribusinesses and agrotourism with varied professional positions, and make substantial profits.
JOIN A COMMUNITY
Come and be dazzled by the day-glo greens of the sawah - and make a difference!
You will be working and having fun with like-minded people from around the world. You will be integrated into a village,
a family, a community for your time here, and you'll soon find out the Balinese are about community... and smiles.
Sawah Bali and THK Bali are partnered with individuals and organizations around the island who share our vision of self determination and a more equitable future for the island's indigenous people. We are always open to input, ideas and energy from motivated thinkers around the world. Take a leap - join us!