Good Karma: AYANA Resort and Spa Bali & Community Outreach

This month, we’re spotlighting the beautiful AYANA Resort and Spa Bali, Indonesia, for its immersion in community outreach through philanthropic efforts and programs that benefit the local people on an ongoing basis, ranging from job training and education to orphanage involvement and house building.

The luxury resort and spa, which features 78 freestanding, cliff-top Bali luxury villas set in traditional Balinese compounds with private pools, most recently partnered with the R.O.L.E. Foundation, an organization with a vision of a sustainable future for islands, oceans and coastal communities through healthy environmental practices. Together, AYANA and R.O.L.E. have provided 12 underprivileged Indonesian women with three months of real on-the-job training in either the food and beverage (F&B), culinary or spa therapy programs.

These women, previously with little hope of a hospitality career, are, with the help of R.O.L.E., daring to dream. Ten of these women have completed the program (five from F&B service, and five from culinary), and officially graduated just this month, celebrating with their trainers at a private lunch at AYANA, where they received certficates and gifts. The other two women are training to be spa therapists; they will continue their training through the month of October and are offering 30-minute R.O.L.E. Model Massage services to AYANA guests for a donation of Rp100,000, which will raise further funds for the foundation’s vocational training programs.

R.O.L.E. trainee, Maria Ekawati, is from Riau, Sumatra. With no formal education or professional experience, Ekawati signed on to R.O.L.E. in the hopes of obtaining a better life for her and her family. At the foundation’s training facility, Ekawati learned English, gardening and basic F&B services. More importantly, Ekawati found her passion—the opportunity to become a spa therapist.

“I dream about it, I wish for it, I visualize it in my everyday life. I am a big believer of reaching for a big dream, and this is one such dream. My passion is in the spa industry. So, you can imagine how thankful I am to get my first chance at this worldly known spa,” says Ekawati.

“Maria is just one of so many disadvantaged women here in Bali who dream of a bigger, more fulfilling life,” says Marian Carroll, director of public relations and marketing communications at AYANA.

“Tourism is the number-one employer in Bali and accounts for the majority of local GDP, and Bali is the biggest contributor to tourism revenue in Indonesia. There are so many opportunities for sustainable employment here that drastically improve the livelihoods of Balinese, who enjoy a higher literacy, life expectancy and per capita income than most other areas in Indonesia. This R.O.L.E. Models program created by AYANA is intended to give them that chance, by giving them a hand-up with the education and training needed to get a job and succeed in this industry. Their passion and drive is so inspiring,none of them want to see this opportunity go to waste. We are honored to have them,”

Upon graduating, trainees showcased their skills as hosts of the R.O.L.E. Models’ Charity Dinner at AYANA’s Dava Restaurant. The dinner raised Rp86,000,000, and all proceeds will go towards R.O.L.E Foundation’s vocational training programs at the Bali WISE Campus in Nusa Dua. The spa has raised an additional Rp7,000,000 on top of this, and the goal is to raise Rp100,000,000 by the end of this month, AYANA tells us.

As a result of the program’s success at AYANA, many other hotels in Bali are also expressing interest in getting involved.

Several of the graduated women are now being offered the opportunity to join AYANA as permanent staff, and will undergo the same recruitment and application process as other candidates for the positions available. The resort said it expects at least three to pass this rigorous process and secure positions.

Beyond its work with R.O.L.E., AYANA also supports the Sanatana Dharma Orphanage in North Bali, where employee donations fund the education and daily livelihoods of 35 disadvantaged children ages 4-17. AYANA also takes part in the Bali Hotels Association Scholarship and Mentoring Program for students of the Bali Hotel and Tourism Institute, and in 2010, AYANA built brick houses for 51 families in a remote East Bali village.

To find out more about AYANA’s efforts, visit www.ayanaresort.com.

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