The Pharos Indonesia Project
During the early 90s Pat Curtis, founder of Pharos Performance Limited, was undertaking a consultancy project on a small Indonesian Island called Batam, situated just 10km from the southern coast of Singapore. Working on re-writing operating manuals for a large steel pipe plant, leisure time was spent in a luxurious house built high upon a cliff and incorporating a huge balcony with a view! And what a view – a small cove – blue sea, white sand, and landscaped with mature coconut trees – absolutely idyllic. And an additional feature was that it was located in the middle of the jungle!
Pat spent two years in this ‘lap of luxury’ during which time, by his own admission, his life, and his way of ‘being’ changed. The comparative solitude and the amazing tropical rain forest environment enabled him to take a long look at his life and plan for substantial change. He also came to terms with what he really wanted to do in terms of his business, and the difference he wanted to help make on the global stage. As a result, much of what is now the ‘Pharos Programme’ was defined in Batam.
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Batam children in school |
Driving to the steel plant each day, Pat was amazed as he watched the children setting off for school. These children lived in ‘Kampongs’, small villages of wooden or corrugated iron huts with the most basic of life’s needs, epitomised by a bucket in a tree to catch the rain-water – the family shower! However, what startled Pat was that these children were absolutely spotlessly turned out. Their school uniforms were clean and ironed, their shoes shining, and their shining jet-black hair immaculately groomed.
He started to ask some questions and his research revealed that these children often have to walk up to 5km to school each day. And they are the lucky ones because some of the smaller islands – and there are over 17,000 of them in Indonesia, don’t have schools at all, so they have to take a ferry to another island and become boarders there. It transpired that to provide one child with one year’s education, including books, accommodation, uniform and meals, costs about £50! This might not sound very much, but when you consider that many of these children’s fathers are simply fishermen who are sometimes lucky to earn £1 a week, it puts it into perspective!
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Pat Curtis handing cheque to Fr Yance |
So Pat decided that, as the Island of Batam had given him so much, he would give a little back. Once back in the UK, and after completion of other consultancy and coaching ventures, he founded Pharos Performance. He decided that for every coaching programme contracted by Pharos, a sum of money would be put in a ‘pot’ to help educate some of the children of Batam. He enlisted the help of Fr Yance, the local priest, to ensure that Pharos funds were provided to the most needy and, since the birth of Pharos, we are privileged to have been able to sponsor over 40 children, providing them with everything they need in school to help them make their way in the outside world.
Each year Pat returns to Batam to visit the school and the children; he also meets the parents. He describes the dads' tears of gratitude, but that isn’t what Pharos is about. We are about making lasting change in business, whilst remembering that the world is becoming smaller and there is need and hardship, nearly on our doorsteps. If we are able to deliver change to these children’s lives as well, that is a bonus for us all.