Yayasan Kechara Indonesia Charitable Hike To Mount Semeru

Taking challenge for a good cause – Yayasan Kechara Indonesia Charitable Hike To Mount Semeru 
The challenge (16 – 18 May 2013)

The 5 hikers-Valentina Suhendra, Yudhono Rawis, Hyang Augustiana, Soo Woon Loong  and Hau Shio Wei began their trip by taking a flight to Surabaya.  They were picked up to their stay for the night, in a simple housing, Homestay Pak Tasyip at Rano Pane village.  The guide dropped by to explain them the next day activities.

17 May 2013

At 7am, they started their hike where they walked 10.5 KM to the beautiful Ranu Kumbolo lake and they had a simple lunch near the lake.  After taking some rest, they climbed the steep Tanjakan Cinta.  That was where they started to see memoriam of people who died while attempting to climb Semeru.  After losing their breath from climbing Tanjakan Cinta, their eyes were entertained with a sea of purple (lavender-like) flowers.  They were in awe.  This area is called Oro-Oro Ombo.  After passing through this amazing scenery, they found themselves inside a huge pine tree forest (Cemoro Kandang).  They rested from time to time because the forest is uphill and it was exhausting.  It rained a little too.  After they successfully passing through the pine tree forest, They found themselves in Jambangan.  It is called Jambangan because this area is like a flower vase full of flowers.  And finally at 4pm, They reached their camping site safely in Kalimati.  Overall, they have walked (mostly uphill) 20.5 KM where everyone was exhausted.   So they rested in the campsite for a night.

18 May 2013

Their guide woke them up at 12am in the morning just to get everyone prepare for their journey hike up to the peak.    Four of them took pain killers because their legs were hurt from the climb the day before prior to continuing their journey.  Each of the ladies was assigned an individual guide, while the guys follow through.  So at 1am, they start to walk and crossed a rather steep forest toward Arcopodo which is a vegetation border where they have to walk in the sand.  When crossing the forest, there was a dust rain from the forest.   Everyone reached the vegetation border at 3,000 mdpl.  That is when the challenge moved up several levels because they had to walk uphill in the slippery dunes for another 3-4hours to reach the peak of Mt Semeru at 3,676mdpl. 

Finally, the various corporate sponsor flag are spread on top of Mt Semeru(3,676mdppl) as promised. Yayasan Kechara Indonesia is proud to inform you that our team of hikers has completed the challenge and safely returned on May 19th, 2013. Overall, they think it was a very valuable experience for all of them and they were happy to take this challenge for a noble cause. It was a Herculean task for all the hikers as it challenges not only their physical but also their psychological level.  The rainy days did not dampen their spirit of pushing themselves to their limit.  Despite all these factors, Yayasan Kechara Indonesia flag finally was on top of Mt Semeru!

We could not have made this happen without your kind support. 

Introduction to Mount Semeru, Java Island

Mount Semeru (Indonesian: Gunung Semeru), is a volcano located in East Java, Indonesia. It is the highest mountain on the island of Java, with around 3,676 m above sea level. The stratovolcano is also known as Mahameru, meaning 'The Great Mountain. Mount Sumeru is an active volcano with recent eruption in year 2012. Since 1818, at least 55 eruptions have been recorded (10 of which resulted in fatalities) consisting of both lava flows and pyroclastic flows. At times, small eruptions happen every 10 minutes or so. Semeru is regularly climbed by tourists, usually starting from the village of Ranu Pane to the north, but though non-technical it can be dangerous.









Mt Semeru had seen heavy rain and strong winds for the past week, increasing the danger for anyone climbing the peak. So for the whole month of April, the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park will temporarily stop issuing permits for tourists to climb Mount Semeru. We would like to inform everyone that Yayasan Kechara Indonesia Mt Semeru Charity Hike would now have to extend to 16-19 May 2012 instead of the original date 25-28 April 2012.



So just before our hike, we thought it will be a great idea to share with everyone on Mt Semeru hiking route and even some of the hiking pathway view!

Note that on the route map, the blue line shows our starting point (Ranu Pane) through the tropical rain forest to Ranu Kumbolo- Kalimati and end point(Puncak Mahameru) of Mt Semeru. Let's pray for everyone safe journey!

Introduction of Yayasan Kechara Indonesia

Yayasan Kechara Indonesia is a non-profit organization and is affiliated with Kechara in Malaysia. We are officially registered as Yayasan Kechara Indonesia on October 17, 2012 by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

Inspired by His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, the Spiritual Guide of Kechara organization, our Vision and Mission are as follows:

Vision - We are a non-profit organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty. Inspired by our Spiritual Guide Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, we are dedicated to working with the world’s most vulnerable people. We serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender We are committed to the poor. We serve the needy people and seek to promote the transformation of their well being.

Mission - Our mission is to be a non-profit organization that engages people to eliminate poverty and its causes. We work with people of all cultures, faiths and genders to achieve transformation.

"Compassion is a priority and a way of life we have to embody daily. It can be hard or easy, depending on how much we want it and realize others need it." - H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

Our Activities is strictly non discriminative of religion, race, gender or culture, amongst others includes:



Food Distribution - Every weekend, we will be distributing 400 food packages to the urban poor in several locations in Jakarta. In the short term, we wish to provide basic sustenance for the urban poor. Eventually we hope to provide a permanent soup kitchen building as a place of safety, "off street", for the distribution of hot food and medical treatment facilities for the urban poor, whilst continuing to provide street food delivery to those who are unable to come to the centre. We also have a Food Bank whereby donors can donate any dry food items to be distributed to the needy. Every year during the Ramadhan month, we will be distributing Sembako to the needy too.



Student Sponsorship - Our mission is to provide assistance for the students from less fortunate family background to enable them to pursue higher education as it is pivotal in reversing the intricate viscous cycle of poverty. We believe that access to knowledge will lead to lasting change in their lives. The Student Sponsorship Program strives to address the root cause of poverty and provide practical and sustainable solution towards improving the standard of living and overall well-being.



Medical Sponsorship - Our mission is to provide basic medical care for the urban poor. In the future we hope to provide a permanent building as a place for the urban poor to seek basic medical treatment.



Others - We also run on ad-hoc basis for used clothes distribution to those needy, stationary distribution to the needy

Our motto is “Compassion Knows no Barriers”

Preparing for the Mt Semeru Hike

This year, we have planned to extend our assistance to more people in need. In order to achieve this goal, the directors of Yayasan Kechara have personally pledged their time, effort and money to raise fund. Ms Valentina Suhendra and Mr Yudho Rawis, together with Kechara Indonesia committee and volunteers Ms Hau Shio Wei, Mr Soo Woon Loong and Ms Agustiana Hyang, will take up the challenge to climb Mount Sumeru.

In line with Yayasan Kechara's motto “Compassion Knows No Barriers”, our five to-be-hikers who took up this 2013 Hiking Challenge came from various background and belief. All of them voluntarily enrolled in this challenge, bounded by a strong common value of compassion in assisting others.

So here we are, our to-be-hikers have started their training session during the Car Free Day on almost every Sunday! They also travel up to an hour to Sentul to continue building strength, balance, and a strong base. They have also planned for workout sessions, and they will increase the number of repetitions for strength training and increase the intensity of aerobic activity!

Let's check out some of them training in action!



What you didn't know about our hikers for the Kechara Indonesia Fundraising Challenge... During our Sentul Training, we discovered that Hyang is the fittest among all! She has been working out in the gym everyday and lost 5kg in the past 1 month! This is how determined Hyang is in making sure she’s fit enough to climb all the way up the peak of Mt Semeru!Wonder who is Hyang? She's the pretty wearing in black.

Introducing third Mt Semeru climber - Wei Wei

Wei Wei is your girl-next-door who is friendly and naive, and loves to travel around the world. She is always carrying her Never-Empty Bag to provide endless supply of "Needs" to all under-privileged and anyone who needs help!

Wei Wei's wish is to meet all the folks who have great hearts and are committed to help all who are in need! She believes that the world will be a better place if there are more smiling happy faces around us!

And then there is Gizmo! Gizmo is Wei Wei's BFF and is always by her side to keep her company and keep the bad guys away! He might be small but he will definitely fight with his life to protect this BFF!

Introducing second Mt Semeru climber - Yudho

Yudho's background: In office, Yudho is always perceived as someone who is quite technical in what he does. he does a lot of finance and accounting tasks in his client-facing role. He is like a designated financial instruments specialist to a lot of people, hence he is also viewed as a finance nerd. People would look for him on financial instruments issues like derivative instruments, forward, swap, options, valuations, etc. So please be patient and find out soon... how is Yudho, this high maintenance guy who likes to eat gourmet food, going to adapt himself to go for a simple meal and sleep in a tent during his hike! There will be more interesting stories coming up!

Introducing first Mt Semeru climber - Valentina

Valentina's background: She started Kechara Indonesia in year 2010 based on the advise of her lama His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. Since then, she has been trying everything she could to develop the activities of Kechara Indonesia.

Valentina's motivation for doing charity work: Life is short, and she does not want to die with regret. She does not care much about nice clothes, jewelry or other fancy stuff. To her, these things are just items that helped her to tap into certain groups of people that have some projections about what kind of persons they want to mingle with. In short, she likes to live simply and happily without so much projections about how others should be or what others should think of her. Where she should be or what she should look like.