Samara has a long history with libraries. When she was just 12-years-old she had her book How to Make Fairy Houses<\/em> published by Boolarong Press. She gave 10% of the royalties to a children\u2019s hospital and conducted free fairy house making classes at Sunshine Coast Libraries. Her fairy house classes became a viable small business through which she supported local charities. In 2014 Samara was named Sunshine Coast Young Citizen of the Year for her efforts, and her desire to continue her humanitarian work naturally extended to Bali.<\/p>\n Tyas, Sam and Freya, a member of the Sunshine Coast fundraising team. Photo: Samara Welbourne<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIf we want peace and sustainability for our future, then we need to do what we can to assist less-fortunate nations, especially\u00a0Indonesia as it is our closest neighbour.\u00a0I feel the Australian-Indonesian relationship\u00a0could be improved more effectively\u00a0through the efforts of the next generation \u2013 Australian and Indonesian \u2013 coming together to make a difference,\u201d Samara enthused.<\/p>\n The library was designed by Journeyman International<\/a>, a platform connecting volunteer architects, designers, engineers and project managers with humanitarian project needs around the world. The library centre includes a small kitchen and bathroom, and a bale<\/em> (traditional open pavilion). Said Samara of Journeyman International, \u201cThey loved our project so much the lead architect flew to Bali to meet us on the library site in the last school holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n Samara is confident she and Tyas, along with Samara\u2019s friends in the Sunshine Coast fundraising team, will have raised $14,000 by the end of March, leaving a shortfall of $6,000. If they\u2019re able to reach their target, Samara will return to Bali with a group of teenagers from the Sunshine Coast to build the library in April. \u201cWhile living in Bali I was involved in quite a few fundraising projects, such as helping to get a 13-year-old boy whose father had been paralyzed back to school, and also to support some animal refuges. I learnt that the Balinese are a wonderful group of people \u2013 gentle, resilient and grateful for what they have in life, and also fun loving!<\/p>\n During her time in Bali the thing that made the biggest impact on Samara was the realisation that, \u201cit is so easy to make a difference \u2013 even for a teenager \u2013 so this is one of the things that drives me to do more.\u201d Sam wants to spend every school holidays in Bali working on charity projects, but for now her full focus is on the Bungaya library.<\/p>\n For more information and to donate, head to their Go Fund: Me Bali Library<\/a> page. Teenagers Samara Welbourne of Australia and Tyas Latra of Bali are on a mission: they\u2019re aiming to raise AUD $20,000 by April this year to build a library in Tyas\u2019 […]<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/34.101.188.30\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Sam-Tyas-and-Freya-1024x683.jpg\")
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