The Adventures Of Nihi with Zack Rowe

Years ago my father was involved in selling a luxurious resort on an island called Sumba in Indonesia. The resort was called Nihiwatu Sumba. The resort used to be called Nihiwatu and now with new ownership, it is called Nihi.

It has been voted the best resort in the world twice.

Way back in 1988 an adventurous American and his wife Claude and Petra Greaves happened upon this incredible place and started to build a small eco-tourists resort. Originally they only had 13 rooms and nowadays there are 33 luxury bedrooms. They also bought a huge amount of land, more than 500 hectares.

The problem is that the island of Sumba is also known as the forgotten island of Indonesia. The people are desperately poor and often get sick with Malaria and they don’t get enough protein to eat and they have real education problems
and so, as a result of this the Nihi Resort, formed an organization called the Sumba Foundation. People spend a lot of money to stay at Nihi and so it was decided that a certain percentage of that money from resort guests would be used to fund the foundation. The foundation is involved in education, medical assistance, and clean water provision.

The characters in this story are several… Claude and Petra; had the vision to start the place and were the originators of the Sumba Foundation. Dr. Claus has spent 17 years working on Malaria eradication and has been very successful in reducing malaria by 80% in the communities where he has worked. Patrick is a specialist in education and he has been involved with the foundation to educate local children to one day be able to have jobs in the hospitality industry. Chris Burch is a billionaire investor and he has pumped money into the resort and the Sumba foundation so that it can reach its goals of helping the people of Sumba. Dan Miller is a family friend who used to work with my father and he is now the Chief Operating Officer of the resort.. My sister Jazmine and my father are also key characters in the story.

It is lovely that rich people can take amazing holidays in this tropical paradise. But taking these holidays at the expense of the local people is not so nice. Therefore the Sumba Foundation was formed so that holidaymakers could give a little bit back and be involved in some charity work for the benefit of the local people. The Sumba Foundation has created more than 4000 freshwater wells, they have provided massive support to the local community in terms of Malaria eradication and they have brought education to local schools bringing best international practices especially in English and computer skills.

There are many activities at the resort mostly to do with the ocean and water sports. When people are not enjoying the ocean and the beaches they are invited to join the foundation and to do some charity work. We became heavily involved in this and joined the expedition to meet the local kids, to feed them protein-rich porridge, and to provide eggs and fortified milk. We went to various health clinics and saw the doctors practicing medicine and giving local women their first chance to look at their babies, inside their stomachs thanks to portable scanning technology. We went to the local watering hole and saw the way in which the local people collect water for their daily needs and we also provided advice and consultation regarding using the freshwater wells

It was one of the best holidays of my life because I got to do my favorite sports and at the same time was able to help the local people and I would like to go back there and do more of this work because it made me feel good to provide benefit to people less fortunate than me. Ultimately I would like to have a business like this combining genuine fun with genuine care.

The drama in this story relates to the Covid 19 pandemic. The tourism business in Indonesia has been really badly affected by the virus because international travelers cannot come. Therefore the resort has been shut down for many months and has not been receiving their normal income. However, the foundation is providing really essential services for the local people and so the team has been doing fundraising activities in the international marketplace and the billionaire Burch has been matching all contributions dollar for dollar. It has been an extremely stressful time for all the staff and the whole foundation team as they continue to try to provide the services to the local people. Claude, Daniel, Dr. Claus, and Patrick have been stuck in Sumba throughout the pandemic continuing to provide essential services and continuing to ensure that the foundation takes over key jobs and tasks. I was very proud to be able to assist and participate and my sister got heavily involved in feeding the local people.

Now there are 2 people I want to talk about; Chris Burch who is now the current owner of Nihi Sumba. He is a multi-billionaire and Claude Greaves the original founder of the Sunda Foundation and Nihi Sumba. Chris gives more care to the people that stay in his resort while Claude gives equal care to the guests and the local community around him. Claude cares about his legacy and gives huge efforts towards the Foundation and the people he helps. So before Chris owned Nihi Sumba, Claude was fundraising and gaining money for the Foundation.

Then Chris came along and wanted to buy the resort from Claude. Claude was only going to sell the resort under one key condition. That condition was; Chris would put a lot of his care into the foundation and Chris at first refused since Chris cared about the crazy rich people from New York with trouble maker kids. What Chris cared about was profit from his crazy rich clients and the guest experiences, but not the local community around him. So that was the condition Claude had with Chris.

After that, they were both fighting for what they wanted, so Chris finally came to the conclusion he would keep the foundation, but it had to be taken care of and supervised by Claude and another thing Chris said was “For every dollar you make in fundraising Claude, I will put a dollar of my own!” So for example, if Claude made a million dollars from fundraising Chris would give an extra million from his vast estate of wealth.