F

ifty-two-year-old Murni Amal, could not hold back her tears of joy. Murni, a widow for 20 years, now has a decent two-bedroom house with a zinc sheet roof.

Murni used to live in a house with walls made from sand, stone and limestone, and floor of bare earth. She lived there with her son Muhammad Bath Amal, her daughter-in-law and her only grandchild.

One day, the Bari Fola survey team from the Ternate Community Union (IKT), led by Burhan Abdurrahman, were looking around the village for homes unfit for habitation. The team found Murni's home in Kulaba sub-district, Pulau Ternate district in North Maluku province. The team decided to build her a new home through the Bari Fola Housing Program.

Bari, in the Ternate and Tidore tongue means mutual assistance. Fola means house.

Previously, the homes of residents in Tidore and Ternate were only made of sago bark, bamboo supports and thatched roof.

'We offered to build Ibu Murni a new home, the cost of which was covered by IKT, and Ibu Murni agreed,' said Burhan, who is also Ternate mayor.

Two days after the survey, the Bari Fola team mobilized 40 of its members to work on the house. Murni's old house was demolished and the foundations for the new one were laid. Other members worked on windows and door frames.

Murni did not have to provide anything, except coffee, tea, water and banana fritters as subsistence for the workers. Meals for the workers were prepared by the community. The food included popeda (made from sago starch) and boiled tubers and bananas.

The permanent two-bedroom house had electricity and was completed in five days. Two days later, IKT handed the key to Murni in a ceremony attended by dozens of IKT members and local residents.

'I'm speechless. I can only express my gratitude to IKT for my home,' said Murni.

Murni's home is the 121th to be built by IKT.

The Bari Fola program is part of the Calamoi movement initiated by Bari Fola without government funding. All the funds are sourced independently from IKT members and managers, as well as contribution from supporters.

'We encourage the calamoi movement, or Rp 1,000 Movement from members, proceeds of which we use to spur the Bari Fola movement,' said Burhan.

He addded the Calamoi movement originated from an artisan social gathering in Ternate. It was initially aimed at helping Tidore residents facing hardship, or those who were sick, but it gradually developed in to the Bari Fola program.

The Calamoi movement is activily engaged in fund-raising. Burhan, said Tidore residents were ashamed of only being able to afford to give Rp 1,000, so some contributed as much as hundreds of million of rupiah.

'An Indonesian-Chinese resident in Ternate once contributed Rp 250 million, as well as cement and other building materials,' said Burhan.

The Bari Fola program was inspired by a home transformation program and is carried out across North Maluku.

The program also received aid from the Social Affairs Ministry in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility funds.

The money helped to rebuild 100 homes, which were handed over to beneficiaries on National Solidarity Day this year.

In days gone by, a completed home would have been moved to other areas by fellow villagers, which is the origin of the Bari Fola tradition of mutual assistance.

Over time, the homes of people in Ternate and Tidore gradually changed into permanent homes with brick walls and corrugated zinc roofing and the Bari Fola tradition slowly faded.

The IKT revived the tradition as it believes that the Bari Fola movement will ensure there will no longer be uninhabitable homes.

'We hope to rebuild as underprivileged people's homes as possible so every home in North Maluku would be fit to live in,' said Burhan.