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Rising up with the people
A program in East Nusa Tenggara has been laying the needed stepping stones to reduce poverty
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program in East Nusa Tenggara has been laying the needed stepping stones to reduce poverty.
Local residents, working through community organizations established under the Poverty Reduction through Safety in Migration pilot program, have made big differences in their neighborhoods.
The program has been funded by the Australian government and the Tifa Foundation, along with Rumah Perempuan Kupang (Kupang House of Women), the Catholic dioceses of Larantuka and Atambua and the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI)
So far, 60 paralegal consultants, 40 para-planners and 24 entrepreneurship consultants have been trained in 30 villages in Kupang, Belu, East Flores and Melaka regencies.
Here are some local heroes who have used the program to help themselves ' and others.
Bernardine Venti Sebaat
The founder of the women's group Rindu Sejahtera in East Penfui village initiated the organization to educate housewives who were abused by husbands or had to survive alone after their migrant-worker husbands did not send money.
'Domestic violence was the norm here ' mostly related to financial issues. I started the organization in 2006 with 16 others. Together we learned handicraft skills so they could earn money,' said Bernardine 'Mama Venti' Sebaat.
As the organization grew to 42 members, it started to run smaller activities, such as fish ponds, tire repair shops, welding services or even workshops making traditional woven clothes.
'We don't hear about domestic violence cases anymore.'
Mama Venti, who never graduated high school, had to learn how to make the group a serious organization by drafting its articles of association and registering it with officials.
Rindu Sejahtera joined the program in 2013 and was able to access Rp 50 million in loans that were used to buy equipments and fertilizers.
'The only thing left to do was establish a cooperative,' said Mama Venti.
Bonefasius Belang
Bonefasius Belang is a proud son of Lewograran village in Solor Island, East Flores, who uses social media to connect with residents working in Malaysia.
Bone set up a Facebook fanpage for migrant workers to update those back home. 'We found a resident of another village who lost contact with his family,' said Bone.
A high school graduate, the 39-year-old said he has a knack for technology.
'All of my staffers are computer-savvy now,' he said.
Bone, who has been a village chief for the past nine years, chairs the community organization Balanawa, which he said opened his eyes as to what could be done to alleviate poverty in his village.
The first thing he did was go door-to-door to collect data on residents working abroad or in Kalimantan.
'We held workshops for the migrant-worker retirees who wished to have their own business and we established a cooperative,' he said.
Former migrant workers used the collective's money to invest in businesses such as garages, furniture workshops and chicken farms.
Bone said he shared his experience with neighboring chiefs who were eager to follow suit. 'A village chief on Lembata [Island] envied us and asked why his village was not in the program.'
'All of us enjoy the benefits of this program. We no longer think that we have to leave our home village to earn money.'
Maria Fatima Buimau
Maria Fatima, who chaired a community organization in Dirun village in Belu did not want to waste the money her husband, Benjamin Belemau, sent home.
Benjamin currently works on an oil palm plantation in Malaysia. He failed to bring money home the first time he went there, in 2004, and returned on another contract after their house caught fire.
Later, Fatima could save enough to renovate the house and to pay tuition for their two children. Their youngest is in second grade; the oldest is a high school senior.
'We rebuilt our home ourselves, using parts of the old house. We don't need a big, luxurious house, as long as it's sturdy enough to last a long time,' said Fatima, showing her half-brick half-wooden house.
Benjamin departed again, this time to pay for Fatima's tuition as she enrolled in an open university, starting a two-year diploma in library studies in 2013.
'I will soon finish the program and start working as a librarian in a high school here,' Fatima said.
'We have decided that this will be the last time my husband will work abroad. He already had an accident at work and got eight stitches for his hand. We just want to give our children education so that they don't have to become migrant workers like their father.'
