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Human Initiative highlights collaboration, empowerment in 2022 forum
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J
akarta-based non-governmental organization Human Initiative recently held its annual Initiative Forum, highlighting its achievements and empowering collaborations throughout 2021.
Held on Thursday at Hotel Bidakara, South Jakarta, and broadcasted online, the event was attended by a number of collaborators, including representatives from the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Cultural Affairs Minister, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ministry, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), national and international NGOs, as well as partner corporations and retailers.
Themed Inspiration for the Country, Independence With Collaboration, the 2022 Initiative Forum highlighted Human Initiative’s commitment to collaborative empowerment.
During a session titled Initiative Talk, Hairul Wahid, a beneficiary from Kekait village in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, said when the island was rocked by a strong earthquake in 2018, Human Initiative launched a humanitarian effort to provide the village with essential supplies.
“After seeing our village’s potential from our abundant natural resources, Human Initiative gave us the drive to develop products made from sugar palm trees. Before Human Initiative collaborated with Kekait village, we mainly produced brown sugar, which was only sold at Rp 5,000 [35 US cents] per disc. After Human Initiative provided us with education and connected us with the local government, we now can sell our newly developed Kekait Palm Sugar [KPS] at Rp 50,000 per kilogram,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Beriana, a midwife based in Tangerang, Banten, said Human Initiative’s support for pregnant mothers with the On My Plate program highlights the importance of the first 1,000 days of life.
“The program aims to help mothers give birth to healthy children who will grow to become a part of the new generation. Our activities include free monthly health checkups, education on pregnancy and child-related nutrition and health topics, as well as training programs on growing catfish at home,” she said.
According to Beriana, the program was overall a success, with 82 percent of pregnant mothers successfully gaining weight, while the number of anemic mothers dropped from around 90 percent to 20 percent.
“We hope that what we have taught can be applied at home and that these amazing mothers can give birth to amazing future generations.”
Speaking to The Jakarta Post after the event, Human Initiative president Tomy Hendrajati said the organization was based on three pillars; Initiative for Children, focusing on children’s protection; Initiative for Disaster, focusing on humanitarian responses pre-disaster and post-disaster; and Initiative for Empowerment.
“We have done numerous activities related to the third pillar, but they are rarely promoted as most of our work is done in rural and outermost areas. We hope to increase our work with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to be around 10 to 15 percent of our total activities, as the level of empowerment is much harder to achieve due to the complex and time-consuming process,” he said.
During the event, Human Initiative also formally launched Initiative Store, an online platform stocking products made by MSMEs that have collaborated with Human Initiative, ranging from handicrafts to culinary products.
To date, Human Initiative has mentored 31 MSMEs throughout the country, with more expected to follow as the economic recovery from the effects of COVID-19 is underway.
“Empowerment is very much an important pillar, as we know that Indonesians have a strong social community, but the problem lies in the access. Our presence is not as a guardian angel, so to speak, but rather as a complementary aspect to the many entities working for them,” Tomy said.
“This is important because the economy is related to the stomach or livelihoods, especially following the pandemic. Without the collaboration of many parties, these programs are impossible to run. The more we can collaborate, the more we can achieve together.”
