More earning potential means more possibilities in Indonesia

Ety Pitáy is a single mom to four children who range in age from 6 to 15. She and her children live in a rural, mountainous community in West Timor, Indonesia. Before she started participating in the CWS Berdaya initiative, Mama Ety relied on processing dried corn kernels to provide for her family. She would grind about 40 pounds of corn each month to remove the hard outer shell. 

For all her hard work, Ety earned less than $9 each month. This hardly kept her children fed, and it wasn’t enough to afford to send them to school. Ety had no savings. 

The family’s future changed drastically when Mama Ety joined Berdaya, which is Indonesian for “empowerment.” The program focuses on supporting women, including to organize and lead their own savings and loans groups so that group members can start or expand businesses. Mama Ety is the secretary of one of these groups. Through Berdaya, Mama Ety also learned new skills that she can use to expand her business. “Before, I only knew how to process corn, but now, along with my corn processing, I can make sweet potato chips and marungga [a local tree with nutritionally valuable fruit and leaves] sticks to sell to snack vendors,” she says.

By adding these products to her business, Mama Ety has been able to double, and sometimes triple her income!

Thanks to the savings group, Mama Ety says, “I can improve my household business by taking out affordable loans to reinvest in myself. But not only that, I can save for my children’s education. I never thought education for my children was possible.” 

“Age should never prevent you from learning.”

Khadra* is a 45-year-old Somali refugee living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her journey to Jakarta was a long and winding one across land, sea and air. Thanks to connections she had made before leaving Somalia, Khadra found other Somali refugees when she arrived. They helped her understand how to go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office to register as an asylum seeker. 

Khadra cannot read or write, so she was lucky to find someone to help her complete her registration documents. The UNHCR referred her to CWS, and we helped her settle into a CWS-hosted group home for refugee women and girls. 

That’s when she learned that for the first time in her life, education was available to her.

“Since I never attended school, I am a bit of a blind woman here,” Khadra says. She was born in an extremely remote village of just six families. The nearest town was a three-hour walk away. Even if she had been allowed or encouraged to go to a school that far away, her family had no money to pay for a uniform or supplies. So when a social worker in Jakarta told her about all of the classes and learning opportunities she had through the CWS program, she had her doubts. “At my age, I did not think I could join these activities,” she says. “But then I realized that age doesn’t matter. It all depends on your commitment.”

So, Khadra set out to learn how to read and write. Her commitment to learn was so great that these classes were not enough for her. She wanted to study more and more, so a CWS team member showed Khadra how to use a computer to study the alphabet on her own after classes ended each day. As her reading abilities grew, Khadra started reading and she practiced writing in paper exercise books. Now, Khadra can read basic sentences, and is certain that “age should never prevent you from learning. It is a lifelong process and an opportunity to not be missed. You just have to persevere.”

Education and skills development are an integral part of life for women, girls and boys in CWS-supported group homes. There are English, Indonesian, math, science and computer classes. And, life skills development opportunities help residents strengthen their readiness to live independently. Twenty-four women and girls are now living in a group home in Jakarta as are 45 unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys. All have a chance to develop new skills such as sewing, cosmetology, computer coding/programming, basic automotive mechanics and mobile phone repair. They also have a chance to study and practice arts and crafts, and to enjoy sports and yoga which, in their otherwise difficult and challenging lives, all the girls, boys and women do appreciate.

*Name changed to protect identity.

Teaming up for better health in Timor-Leste

When our team first visited Gariana hamlet in Timor-Leste, we were surprised by how hard it was for families here to get basic health care. We heard that for two years, no one from Gariana had been able to access the government-guaranteed Integrated Community Health Services that are meant to bring doctors and other health care workers–and vital vaccinations–to rural families like those in Gariana. When we heard this, our team began partnering with Health Center staff to reinvigorate the integrated health services in Gariana.

One person who is excited about this development is Odete Martins Bruno. Odete is a mother of two who has been participating in our Timor Zero Hunger program activities. She’s excited about the return of government health outreach efforts so that her children can be vaccinated against preventable disease and her family will be able to get other health services. 

As the government’s program is being reintroduced to Gariana, our team is supplementing with additional information for families who are seeking care. Our focus is nutrition and using locally available foods. For example, we hosted a nutrition workshop on how to enhance the rice porridge that is the staple of their children’s diets with nutritious ingredients. During the workshop, Odete said, “I always assumed that my children didn’t like vegetables. But after we were encouraged to cut nutritious vegetables into small piece that blend well with the rice porridge, I was surprised to see my children eat plenty!”

This is a small but valuable lesson for Odete and other moms, too. In all, 67 mothers who have a combined 87 young children As part of the Timor Zero Hunger program, in one lesson alone in Gariana alone, CWS has a chance to support 67 mothers to properly prepare rice porridge for their 87 young children. Going forward, CWS plans to expand to more villages on both sides of the island in partnership with national health workers and community leaders for the benefit of vulnerable families and their young children’s health and nutrition.

Keeping tradition alive…and building women’s businesses in the process

Deni Seteria Saufeto is a jack-of-all-trades in her village in West Timor, Indonesia.Besides taking care of her children and home, Mama Deni earns money weaving textiles like her mother taught her. For years, she had successfully sold shawls and blankets to family or friends. But weaving is a common way to make a living in the area, so competition for paying customers was tough.

Things changed for Mama Deni when she joined the CWS Berdaya (empowerment) initiative, which is part of a our Timor Zero Hunger program. Berdaya is designed to help women expand their earning options and potential. As you can tell from the name, Timor Zero Hunger is designed to end hunger and malnutrition in the area, especially for young children. When women are better able to provide for their families, they can feed their children better, too.

The island of Timor, where West Timor is located, is famous for its high-quality weaving, just like Mama Deni was doing. Traditional Timor weaving was done with naturally dyed threads. Recently, though, the widespread importing of cheaper, lower quality but more colorful threads was causing a move away from the natural dyeing process. The shift has been so dramatic that the skills to naturally dye the thread were nearly lost. 

The local Office of Trade and Industry near where Mama Deni lives has tried to revive the practice of naturally dyeing thread. CWS recently joined our trade office colleagues to host a dyeing workshop as part of the Berdaya initiative. It was a chance for women to refresh their skills and revive their mothers’ and grandmothers’ way of weaving. They also explored new natural color combinations and weaving motifs. This helped increase the value of the scarves and blankets that participants were weaving.

Mama Deni attended the workshop and has returned to naturally dyeing her thread. She says she started seeing the benefits almost immediately. “Not only do I get new orders from outside of my village, but I see that my neighbors who used to order from other weavers have started coming to me. They have noticed my new [higher quality] work and now prefer to buy from me.”

Realizing a DREAM in Indonesia

Reni Sattu and her family live in a remote, rural village in Indonesia. It’s about 25 miles from the nearest town. 

When your home is that remote, there are a lot of services that you don’t have easy access to. One of the services on the list? Banking.

Years ago, Reni approached a bank in a bigger city. Her husband’s income was barely paying the family’s daily bills, and she knew they needed more. She wanted to start her own business, a cafe based out of her home. That’s when she found out that her family’s meager income prevented her from being eligible for a bank loan. Her only other option was to borrow from an informal lender…a loan shark. She knew loan sharks would bring trouble, but it seemed like she didn’t have another way to get the loan she would need to start her cafe. 

For five years, Reni borrowed money at high interest rates to build and run her cafe. Despite all her hard work, and having plenty of customers, the high interest rates made Reni feel like she was just going in circles. She kept paying the interest on her loans and never turned much of a profit. “There was a time when I had to pay back about 100,000 Rupiah [$7] a day in interest whether I made any money that day, or not. It felt like torture,” she says.

After struggling for years, Reni decided to close her cafe.

Fast forward to October 2018, when Reni joined an aptly-named CWS program. It’s called DREAM, which stands for Disaster Risk Reduction through Enhanced Adaptive Measures. As part of DREAM, our team helps women farmers and small business owners organize savings and loans groups so they can support each other. It’s a critical part of adapting to changes in rural farm life in Indonesia–changes that are primary brought about by climate change. Reni joined one of the savings groups, and she was soon able to apply for a loan to realize her dream of restarting her cafe.

She says, “I never knew getting a fair loan was possible. With our interest rates, I can make the loan payments, add to our income and save, too!” With her newfound sense of security, Reni says she feels ready and able to invest in the well-being and education of her family.

Lesson learned: don’t take water for granted!

Like many people in the world, Diana used to take water for granted. Then disaster struck.

Diana lived in a coastal village near Palu in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. But when an earthquake and resulting tsunami washed her home away on September 30th, 2018, she had to move to a temporary camp. Thousands of her neighbors faced the same harsh new reality. In Diana’s camp, called Lumbuna, there was no central water system. This made safe drinking water a rarity, and it made cooking, bathing and washing clothes difficult. And, for the first time in her life, Diana realized the privilege she had in having had ample water just days before.

Thankfully, Diana now recalls, CWS began trucking safe water to Lumbuna within days of the mass movements. Soon, soon, each person was receiving at least four gallons of water every day. In time, the ration approached eight gallons per person each day. Still, Diana had to stretch this water to cover drinking (after boiling) as well as cooking, bathing and doing laundry.

In July 2019, 10 months after the disaster, CWS remained committed to providing clean water for Diana and thousands of other people still displaced from their homes. However, our response was shifting into longer-term recovery efforts. CWS teams drilled boreholes to find more water, which gave Diana and others more immediate and sustainable access to water. Now she can spend less time worrying, and start moving forward with her life. “I am really stressed about starting my life over after the earthquake. But with CWS’s help in sharing clean water, I have one less obstacle and I can start focusing on getting my life back on track,” Diana says.

CWS, along with community members, is now drilling multiple borehole to increase water access for about 1,000 families still coping with the earthquake and tsunami’s impact. Much remains to be done. But, as Diana said, there’s one less thing families need to worry about for now.

Linking gardens, savings and disaster resilience in Indonesia

In October 2016, a landslide destroyed houses and farmland in Lembang Rano, a small mountainous village in southern Tana Toraja, Indonesia. CWS was already working with communities there, so we teamed up with the district Disaster Management Agency to support disaster response. Once the community had recovered, our team and government colleagues saw an opportunity to share disaster preparedness and response information. This is a landslide-prone area, so we wanted to help the community be better prepared for future landslides. 

We already had an established program in other nearby villages called Safe Schools, Safe Communities. In this program, we worked with village schools to distribute information to students’ families. Schools are often a great starting point because children are eager to share what they learn with family and friends. We expanded the program into Lembang Rano. 

Henrita is the mother of two children who attended a Safe Schools, Safe Communities participating school. “I was interested in this information [which I heard from children], and I hoped that CWS would begin sharing it with everyone,” she said. “So, when the village leader told me that CWS would come back to Lembang Rano, I was excited.”

The Safe Schools, Safe Communities program wrapped up. Its successor is a program called DREAM, which stands for Disaster Risk Reduction through Enhanced Adaptive Measures. DREAM is designed to help families strengthen their resilience against natural disasters like the landslide that damaged the village school a few years ago. Unlike its predecessor, though, DREAM is exploring ways for whole communities to build resilience to disaster. Through this program, individual families can strengthen themselves in ways that will help the whole community, including schools, be stronger and safer.

One way families can be stronger and more resilient to disasters is by having more resources, especially economic stability. And one way to achieve this is to diversify crops and livestock … and to empower women in the bargain. This is what DREAM does. Our program team supported Henrita and other women in Lembang Rano to form a Savings and Loan Group through which members could save their own earnings from individual work; and, with group agreement, take small loans.

Just as she immediately saw how people could benefit from knowing more about disaster risk reduction, Henrita quickly saw that her group’s capital grew slowly, and outstanding loans kept the capital at a minimal level. Wanting to help build capital faster so larger loans could be made, and so member dividends could be realized, she called a meeting. After a lot of discussion, members agreed to start a group garden and to sell the vegetables for the collective good of the savings and loan fund.
While wanting mostly to improve her own life, and help others do the same, Henrita noted “a lot of change in our group’s members, many of who used to stay home and take care of their families only.” But, with the group effort, and profit motive, they became gardening enthusiasts. And, in managing a community garden together, they learned more about running their savings and loans group better. All in all, the DREAM keeps growing.