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Bloggers showcase humanity at grassroots
Show of thumbs: Blogger Lauren Kana Chan (fourth right) poses with local municipal officials at an event in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday in support of a European Union development program on combating discrimination and stigma against women and children with disabilities
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span class="inline inline-center">Show of thumbs: Blogger Lauren Kana Chan (fourth right) poses with local municipal officials at an event in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday in support of a European Union development program on combating discrimination and stigma against women and children with disabilities.(Courtesy of Lauren Kana Chan)
Through the eyes of Dewi, a 24-year-old woman from Central Java, Lauren Kana Chan learned about the positive outlook that persons with disabilities in Indonesia have and the progress they have made, despite the shame and stigma imposed on them.
“She had a leg discrepancy [sic] and struggled to do things on her own and it reflected a broader struggle of what it’s like [to be disabled],” the Canadian blogger said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Chan said Dewi’s story was particularly moving for her because she still had an optimistic outlook on her future and continued to soldier on in spite of the reality of her situation.
She was able to capture Dewi’s story through photographs taken during her three-week stay in Indonesia, during which she made stops in Jakarta, East Nusa Tenggara and Central Java.
This was not one of those self-enlightenment trips that people often do when they get stuck; Chan was asked to blog stories from her visit to a number of development projects funded by the European Union.
These snippets of progress at the grassroots, which are uploaded to the Faces2Hearts online blog, include updates on a selection of initiatives focusing on themes such as inclusiveness for women and children with disabilities, accountability and prevention of torture, and tourism and local economic development, among others.
From the project, Chan realized just how important the grassroots movement was.
Often times in development projects, Chan said the big focus is to monitor progress and report the successful impacts they make. “Sometimes it is easy to forget why you’re doing what you’re doing — [but] it is really about the people,” she said.
It is estimated that there are 270,000 persons with disabilities in seven districts and cities in Central Java, which was the target area of one EU program for combating discrimination and stigma against women and children with disabilities, to which the bloc contributed €431,250 (US$534,879).
As the largest development donor in the world, the EU initiated the Faces2Hearts blog as a platform for content posted by Chan and three other selected bloggers dispersed across three regions: the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa. Their work is to end with them attending the European Development Days in Brussels, Belgium, in June, when they are to share their experiences with development professionals.
As Indonesia continues to grow as an economy, the EU seeks to shift its assistance portfolio from supporting large projects and development aid, to providing more “tailor-made assistance” in economic reform and trade facilitation, said EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guérend.
“We do continue and [are] going to continue our support to [civil society] in Indonesia,” Guérend told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
