Seven years ago, in 2019, I met Florian Lengu, a local from Flores and founder of the Dian Flores Indonesia Foundation.

Back then I was backpacking through Southeast Asia for a few months and as I was making my way through Flores, a beautiful and less travelled island east of Bali, I happened to pass through a town called Bajawa. One evening, Florian and his family were having dinner at the same restaurant as I was and eventually, we started talking.

When he learned that I was from Germany, his eyes lit up and he said: “Oh, really? Do you know Garmisch-Partenkirchen? I’ve been there!”
Honestly, this was so unexpected, my jaw dropped. Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a small town in the very south of Germany, usually known for skiing and the Winter Olympics. But it also happens to be the town where my grandparents met and where I spent a couple of summer and winter holidays during my childhood.

Naturally I had to ask: “How come you’ve been there?”
And what he then told me is truly astonishing.

Florian himself was born into a large family of eleven children and had to help his parents from early on just to afford school fees and daily needs. In 1991, when Florian was 16, he met a Dutch couple, Mr. H.P. Deys and Mrs. Jeanne Deys, who were traveling across Flores as tourists. He offered to be their local guide for three days, taking them to visit several villages connected to his family’s roots.

Three months later, he received a letter from Mr. Deys saying they would support his education. This was a dream come true. They supported him until December 1992, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Flores. Tragically, Florian lost all contact with his sponsors in the Netherlands since the documents with their information were gone and back then there was no internet available on Flores.

In 1993, he officially started working in tourism and eventually finished school. That he had lost contact with the Dutch couple never left his mind and in 2002, 11 years after they initially met, he set out to find them and flew to the Netherlands. Once there, more resources were available and he managed to reconnect with them. And since he already was in Europe, they wanted to treat him to an experience he would remember for a lifetime and took him to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “Reuniting with them was one of the most joyful and emotional moments of my life”, he recalls.

“I just want other children to experience what I once received – the gift of education and hope.” And for many years now he has been doing exactly that: helping children from his area receive donations for their education, whether by approaching travelers or through the support of local politicians. However, in recent years it has been quite difficult to do so, especially in times when tourism is low like during the pandemic or recent volcanic activities that led to many cancelled flights.

Right now, there are 200+ children in the area of Bajawa who need financial support for their education. Many of them are orphans due to past natural catastrophes or illnesses, others were abandoned or are from extremely poor families.

After that dinner back in 2019 when I met Florian and his family, he invited me to come and meet his mother in her home since she lived close to the restaurant. Later, he and his family also invited me to stay with them in their home for a few nights, where I learned a lot about their lives, culture, but most of all their warm hospitality.

He also introduced me to two sisters who had to drop out of school because their father left their family and they didn’t have enough money to continue. I ended up supporting them until they graduated two years later. In the pictures below you can see one of the girls and me on our way to open a bank account for them when I was in Flores in 2019. The picture on the right shows Florian and his wife Theresia.