St. Thomas House is an Orthodox boarding house located in the old Dutch colonial capital of Singaraja, Bali. While many of the charms of this historic and picturesque town remain, poverty and hardship are an inescapable reality; thanks to the St. Thomas House, though, 70 children have a place that they can call home.
The Indonesian archipelago comprises more than 17,000 islands – 6,000 of which are inhabited. It is generally believed that the earliest inhabitants of Indonesia came from India or Burma. The islands fell to the Portuguese in 1511. Following centuries of colonial rule, and a period of Japanese occupation during WWII, Indonesia independence was recognised in 1949.
Though Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, with a population of nearly 250 million people (almost 90% of them Muslim), Bali is predominantly Hindu.