IT’S been a challenging year for Inge De Lathauwer and her team at Sumba Hospitality Foundation, which runs the hotel school on the Indonesian island. The resort, which provided some income for the school, stalled. Any funds raised went towards Covid-related health issues. Tourism to Sumba has stalled, jobs and income have been lost across the island. But still, the Belgian founder remains undaunted and is looking forward to the future, specifically May 2022, when this latest batch of students complete their education. “No one fails, that is our responsibility,” she says.
Ten students, supported by funds raised from the WiT Charity Auction of 2019, finally started their classes in January this year at the Sumba Hospitality School on the island of Sumba, Indonesia.
After a year of closure, due to Covid, the school, run by the Sumba Hospitality Foundation , reopened January 15. The 10 students – Tuti, Karel, Listo, Paskal, Vinia, Aris, Libertin, Diana, Satni and Arden – are part of a 50-strong cohort for this year’s enrolment.
Founder Inge De Lathauwer, who has just returned to Brussels after spending four months in Indonesia, preparing for the reopening, said the intake was reduced from the usual 60 due to the uncertain tourism situation.
Covid has had a devastating impact not only on the school which had a hotel that provided some income but also on the island of Sumba, which depends on tourism for its already-impoverished economy.
De Lathauwer said, “We sent all students home for four months last year (from April till end July). Normally our school year was July 2019 till end May 2020 followed by a six-months internship. We had to extend the school year from August till end November to get all students back up to the standard before going on internship.
“This resulted in higher operation costs as we needed to keep all staff onboard even without students and hotel guests, as it was uncertain when we could reopen. We had to close our training hotel which normally provides us some income.”
On a wider scale, she said, a lot of families in Sumba depend on income from family members who work outside Sumba. “Because of Covid many lost their jobs and this income stopped. The population in Sumba is already very under privileged and became even more dependent on aid from government and foundations.
“In Sumba, the health care is very limited and hospitals do not have the equipment nor facilities to handle Covid patients. A lot of people were very anxious about this situation. Thanks to the warm climate and people living in remote locations (bubbles) the number of Covid deaths wasn’t so high as elsewhere in the world and numbers and casualties were limited to the three larger cities in Sumba. The positive impact of Covid was that many remote villages received water tanks for hand washing and improvements were made for hygiene.
“The head of our Foundation, Dempta Bato, played a very significant role in Sumba and was one of the leaders who organized the distribution of clothes, soaps, food and created awareness, teaching about hygiene in remote villages. As a trusted foundation in Sumba, people and organizations sent us donations (clothes, money for food supplies etc) for the urgent aid of the communities in Sumba. This was not linked to SHF/our students but to support the wider communities in Sumba.”
“No one fails, that is our responsibility” – even in tough times, SHF managed to find internships
The current cohort of students will be in school till the end of November. From December to end May they will do a six-month internship in either Sumba or Bali. This means they will finish their education in May 2022 and the graduation ceremony is planned for November 2022.
“Every student who enters SHF will be successful, no one fails, that is our responsibility,” says Inge De Lathauwer.
While Covid may make finding internship positions more challenging, De Lathauwer said, “Every student who enters SHF will be successful, no one fails, that is our responsibility. By having them with us during 11 months in boarding school and focusing a lot on personal development, not only hospitality skills, we have a good idea which student will fit best in which place.
“We keep our numbers small to give everyone the chance to develop and make the most out of the programme: team work, study groups, one on one sessions with teachers for extra support and constant evaluation. It is a holistic approach to vocational education. We are in contact with all our alumni and keep them informed about job new opportunities.”
She admits it will be a challenge but “we are very hopeful thanks to the good reputation we have in the hospitality market after three years of operation. We have established loyal partnerships with high end hotels and restaurants and our students are wanted in the job market. We managed, even in these Covid times, to find 60 internships (Kempinski, Grand Hyatt, Belmond, Nihi Sumba, Locavore, Aperitif) for our Batch 4 in November 2020.
“We hope that when these Batch 5 students graduate in May 2022, the situation will be much better. People will continue to travel, we have to stay positive.”
Tourism to Sumba slow but domestic push should boost arrivals
For the moment, tourism to Sumba remains slow. “Indonesia has been very affected by this pandemic, the purchasing power of Indonesians, who are very dependent on tourism income, has decreased substantially so domestic tourism is very low now. Another problem has been the requirement of many Covid tests between islands, which is costly to add to the travel budget.
“We hope that the borders open soon for International travellers as Sumba was slowly getting recognised as an attractive destination for tourists who were looking for special experiences, explorers.”
She is encouraged by current efforts by the government to push domestic tourism. “Domestic travellers are more interested today to discover their country because of the incredible variety of landscapes and cultures. Sumba is a very appealing destination for people who already visited places like Bali and Java.
“As a very large and uncrowded destination with unspoiled beaches, an interesting animist culture, beautiful handicrafts like the famous Sumba ikats, it is definitely already on many Indonesians ‘bucket list. As people are still hesitant to travel and you can only reach Sumba through Bali or Kupang, this extra flight is a problem and extra cost. We hope to receive direct flights from Jakarta and Surabaya in the near future to boost tourism in Sumba.”
De Lathauwer, who started the school “to end the circle of poverty by giving hope and opportunities to the youth of Sumba”, is not fazed by the challenges brought on by Covid and remains focused on the longterm and future.
“We believe in the importance to provide excellent quality education for these students so they can find good job opportunities and have hope for a better future. We always planned to be there for the long term and we are determined to find ways to continue our work.
“We have invested a lot of time and money last year in branding and new websites to increase our hotel revenue and reach more people for donations. In 2020, of course, priority was given in donations for Covid-related issues like health care, food supplies and we received no income for the hotel. We are hopeful this will slowly change later this year when the pandemic is under control.
“We had plans to organize a fundraising event in Singapore and Bali in 2021 to make our foundation more financially sustainable in the future. We will have to postpone these events till 2022 when this crisis has passed and it is possible to travel again and people can organize again bigger events.”
• All images credit: Sumba Hospitality Foundation