KEEPING THE PEACE WITH AWIG-AWIG

 

Long before anyone was talking about disaster risk reduction, our ancestors were already doing it. Back then they realized that if they continue to exploit the environment without any efforts to protect and conserve it, then there would no doubt be a disaster. So, in an effort to prevent this from happening, they established a set of rules to regulate the usage of natural resources. These rules were agreed upon by customs and they hoped that it would last for generations to come.

These days not many cultural rules and customs are still being heeded. Changing times and economic interests have made people become more preoccupied with using up nature’s resources without taking care or conserving it.

There is, however, one community that still strongly upholds its custom laws in the daily lives of its residents, including natural resource management. This community is located in the Beleq hamlet in a Gumantar village in North Lombok district. All community members of this hamlet are of Sasak ethnicity and still obey the laws established by their ancestors.

The community members of Beleq follow a special custom law called an awig-awig, or rules, which regulates the management of natural resources from the forest and springs.

Not too far from the village is a communal forest with tall trees towering over the land. In that forest is a spring, which villagers use for their daily needs. For this community, the forest and spring are invaluable assets, making it absolutely essential that they protect their existence. No one is allowed to cut down the trees in this forest or else they face sanctions set by the custom laws.

The same can be said about water sources. There are several rules on its usage that community members must follow. One of them is that bathing and washing is forbidden in the spring, which has contributed to maintaining its cleanliness. They are also not allowed to take an excessive amount of water. Generally villagers retrieve water using a bokah, or a hollowed out pumpkin shell, which is not very big in size and has a diameter of around 30 cm.

“People’s awareness to preserve the environment has been around for generations, and even the children understand the importance of environmental stewardship,” said Jumayar, a local youth leader. Additionally, villagers also believe that if they violate the awig-awig, they will get ill or suffer from long rainy or dry seasons, which might befall the village.

Even though disaster risk reduction traditions were started by their ancestors and have been carried out throughout many generations until the present day, community members of Beleq are quite open to new knowledge and skills. When the Building and Deepening Resilience to Disasters in Eastern Indonesia was introduced to their hamlet, they were very enthusiastic about the program. Some residents have become members of the Village Preparedness Teams.

“We are grateful for this program in our community since we have new knowledge and skills in reducing the impacts of disasters,” said Yurdin, the head of Beleq hamlet. Yurdin also acknowledged that by increasing the knowledge and information in disaster risk reduction, villagers will be better organized and focused in their environmental conservation efforts.

In the end, all of the efforts done by the community of Beleq hamlet are aimed at maintaining a balance between nature and humankind. When that balance is achieved, therein lays the harmony of life. (NugrohoArifPrabowo/Oxfam)

Photo info:

Residential area of the Beleq hamlet. (Photo credit: Nugroho Arif Prabowo/Oxfam)

Reninti, a Beleq villager, carrying a bokah. (Photo credit: Nugroho Arif Prabowo/Oxfam)

Communal forest of Beleq. (Photo credit: Nugroho Arif Prabowo/Oxfam)

Grow in Indonesia on Facebook page

Grow in Indonesia on Facebook page

Female Food Hero in Indonesia was launched during International Women’s Day celebration (5 – 9 March 2013). Seven women from different provinces in Indonesia were chosen as their hard working to support food security and livelihoods in and nearby their neighbors and communities.

Menjadikan Mahasiswa sebagai Pionir Penanggulangan Bencana

Oleh: Nugroho Arif Prabowo

Photos of workshop about disaster risk reduction approaching students as part of agent to reduce risk of disasters in Indonesia

Mahasiswa telah berperan besar menentukan arah sejarah. Tak hanya di Indonesia tetapi juga di banyak negara lain di dunia. Kiprah mereka membentang melintas zaman. Gelora semangat menjadi sumbu bagi nyala gerakannya. Pun demikian, tak sedikit yang menganggap itu semua hanyalah letupan dari jiwa muda yang dengan sendirinya akan kendur seiring bertambahnya umur. Tak jadi soal. Mereka akan selalu ada. Generasi baru akan selalu lahir. Yang lebih penting adalah membekali mereka dengan beragam kemampuan sehingga menjadi digdaya dan mumpuni dalam menghadapi setiap kondisi, bahkan ketika bencana tiba.

Berbicara soal bencana, Indonesia adalah gudangnya. Hampir setiap hari berita mengenai bencana dapat kita temukan di media massa. Sepanjang tahun 2012, Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) mencatat tak kurang dari 1835 bencana mendera Indonesia. Hal ini diperparah dengan kurangnya pengetahuan dan kesadaran dari masyarakat untuk mengurangi risiko akibat bencana yang timbul. “Di Jepang upaya pengurangan risiko bencana sudah ada sejak 200 tahun yang lalu, sedangkan di Indonesia baru masif digalakkan tahun 2004 pasca tsunami di Aceh,” ujar Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Kepala Pusat Data dan Informasi BNPB.

Upaya penyadaran kepada masyarakat untuk mengurangi risiko bencana harus terus dilakukan. Salah satu aktor penting yang diharapkan bisa menjadi motor penggerak dalam usaha pengurangan risiko bencana adalah mahasiswa. Paradigma yang terbentuk di sebagian besar kalangan mahasiswa dan akademisi selama ini terkait bencana adalah selalu mengenai respon darurat saat bencana terjadi. Padahal ada tahapan yang tak kalah penting untuk dikerjakan yaitu menyiapkan diri sebelum bencana terjadi sehingga bisa meminimalisir dampak akibat bencana.

Mengingat pentingnya percepatan ini, Oxfam bekerjasama dengan Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, UNOCHA, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, dan BNPB melakukan inisiatif dengan menghadirkan perwakilan mahasiswa dan akademisi dari 21 kampus di Indonesia ditambah perwakilan dari 4 BPBD provinsi dan 2 BPBD kabupaten dalam sebuah forum seminar dan lokakarya bertajuk “Mendorong Peran Strategis Mahasiswa dalam Sistem Penanggulangan Bencana di Indonesia”. Dalam acara yang dihelat pada 16-17 April di Hotel Grand Cemara Jakarta ini semua pihak saling berbagi pembelajaran dan merumuskan langkah strategis dalam upaya penanggulangan bencana di Indonesia.

“Workshop ini penting dan menjadi forum bagi mahasiswa sebagai bagian dari pembelajaran, agar kedepan dapat lebih baik karena urusan bencana bukan urusan satu organisasi saja tapi merupakan urusan kita bersama,” kata Rajan Gengaje, Country Director UNOCHA di Indonesia dalam pidato sambutannya. Lebih lanjut Rajan mengatakan bahwa penanggulangan bencana adalah bidang yang akan berkembang di kemudian hari sehingga diperlukan banyak sumber daya manusia profesional. Ia juga menghimbau agar para dosen pembina mahasiswa yang ikut di kegiatan ini dapat membuat upaya tindak lanjut di kampusnya masing-masing sehingga manfaatnya bisa dirasakan nyata.

Menyinggung peran mahasiswa dalam penanggulangan bencana, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Kepala Pusat Data dan Informasi BNPB dalam kesempatan itu di hadapan para peserta semiloka menyatakan bahwa peran mahasiswa dalam kegiatan penanggulangan bencana adalah pengejawantahan dari Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi, dalam hal pengabdian kepada masyarakat. “Hendaknya mahasiswa perguruan tinggi bisa menjadi pionir-pionir di masyarakat terkait penanggulangan bencana. Kemudian KKN tematik penanggulangan
bencana bisa lebih ditingkatkan jumlahnya. Kami dari BNPB menyambut dengan baik kegiatan-kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan perguruan tinggi,” tandas Sutopo.

Partisipasi aktif dari mahasiswa tentunya juga harus didukung oleh universitas tempat mereka bernaung. Sinergi dari dua komponen ini akan melahirkan kekuatan yang luar biasa dalam usaha penanggulangan bencana. “Dalam kondisi tertentu mungkin mahasiswa mampu, tetapi tetap harus melibatkan civitas akademika. Karena dengan adanya pendamping dari kampus maka kegiatan akan lebih terarah,” kata Kepala Subdirektorat Kemahasiswaan Direktorat Pendidikan Tinggi Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Widyo Winarso kepada para peserta lokakarya.

Pada tahap awal lokakarya, peserta diajak untuk mengeksplorasi ide dan pemahaman mereka terkait kebencanaan secara utuh melalui metode diskusi kelompok partisipatif. Tanpa canggung dosen dan mahasiswa berbaur saling berdiskusi dalam satu kelompok. Hal tersebut dilakukan mengingat para peserta datang dengan pengalaman dan pemahaman kebencanaan yang berbeda-beda.
Berbagi pengalaman

Hakikatnya ajang semiloka ini juga menjadi tempat untuk saling berbagi pengalaman dan pembelajaran tentang penanggulangan kebencanaan yang melibatkan perguruan tinggi. Sebagai contoh praktik baik adalah pengelolaan Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa (UKM) berbasis penanggulangan bencana di Universitas Negeri Papua (UNIPA) Manokwari dan Kuliah Kerja Nyata (KKN) tematik penanggulangan bencana oleh Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) Yogyakarta.

UNIPA Manokwari telah merintis berdirinya UKM Peduli Bencana pada bulan Desember 2012 lalu. Tetapi cikal bakalnya telah dimulai sejak tahun 2004 dalam bentuk komunitas di lingkungan mahasiswa teknik geologi. “Latar belakang pendiriannya adalah bahwa secara ancaman Papua termasuk rentan terhadap berbagai ancaman bencana, tetapi belum dipikirkan usaha pengurangan risiko bencana secara terpadu. Diharapkan dengan adanya UKM ini akan berkontribusi pada upaya pengurangan risiko bencana yang menyeluruh tidak hanya pada saat terjadinya bencana saja,” kata David Victor Mamengko, pembina UKM Peduli Bencana UNIPA.

Bencana banjir di Wasior tahun 2010 menjadi titik tolak untuk mempercepat berdirinya UKM peduli bencana ini. Pada saat terjadi bencana, respon semua pihak termasuk pemerintah amat lambat, hal ini dikarenakan pengetahuan yang minim akan penanggulangan bencana.

Tahun 2010 rektor menyetujui pembentukan UKM karena melihat pentingya keterlibatan mahasiswa dalam penanggulangan bencana baik pada waktu sebelum terjadi bencana, saat terjadi bencana, dan setelah terjadi bencana. Namun dari tahun 2010 hingga 2012 terjadi transisi kepemimpinan dari rektor yang lama kepada yang baru, sehingga hal ini berakibat UKM Peduli Bencana baru resmi dideklarasikan pada bulan Desember 2012.

Beberapa kegiatan yang telah dilakukan UKM Peduli Bencana adalah respon darurat banjir di Wasior, perencanaan kontinjensi Kabupaten Manokwari, serta identifikasi bahaya geologi di Kabupaten Raja Ampat. Untuk penguatan kapasitas, UKM Peduli Bencana mengirimkan anggotanya untuk mengikuti pelatihan pengurangan risiko bencana yang diselenggarakan oleh Oxfam. Dalam kiprahnya UKM Peduli Bencana UNIPA juga ikut terlibat dalam pembentukan Forum Pengurangan Risiko Bencana Kabupaten Manokwari.

Selain melalui UKM, salah satu pelibatan mahasiswa dalam kegiatan penanggulangan bencana adalah melalui KKN tematik. Pengalaman terkait KKN tematik ini disampaikan oleh Yuniar Wardani pembimbing kemahasiswaan dari UAD Yogyakarta.

“Awalnya adalah gempa yang melanda Yogya dan sekitarnya tahun 2006. Karena kondisi itu tiba-tiba KKN mahasiswa berubah menjadi tematik mesikpun saat itu mahasiswa tidak dibekali kemampuan penanganan bencana yang memadai,” kata Yuniar yang juga menjadi korban saat gempa bumi terjadi, dimana rumahnya luluh lantak hanya menyisakan bagian depan saja.

Untuk memperbaiki pelaksanaan KKN tematik yang masih carut-marut serta meningkatkan kemampuan mahasiswanya, UAD menggandeng Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (MDMC), sebuah lembaga yang khusus bergerak di bidang penanganan bencana milik Muhammadiyah. Kebetulan UAD bernaung di bawah Muhammadiyah. Langkah berikutnya adalah penyiapan di tingkat Program Studi (Prodi) melalui pemberian mata kuliah wajib yang berhubungan dengan kebencanaan. Contohnya adalah di Prodi Ilmu Kesehatan Masyarakat ada tiga mata kuliah yang wajib diambil oleh mahasiswa yaitu penanggulangan bencana, epidemiology surveillance, dan geographic information system. Selain itu upaya peningkatan kapasitas juga dilakukan lewat UKM seperti PMI, Pramuka, dan pecinta alam.

Dalam hal percepatan penyebaran informasi kesiapsiagaan, salah satu faktor penentunya adalah pada kekuatan kerja berjejaring. Dengan adanya forum pengurangan risiko bencana di level kabupaten atau kota diharapkan bisa membantu tersebarnya pesan tersebut secara lebih luas, mengingat anggota forum berasal dari lintas disiplin keilmuan dan profesi termasuk dari kalangan perguruan tinggi. Pengalaman ini disampaikan oleh M. Mugni Ketua Forum Pengurangan Risiko Bencana Kabupaten Lombok Timur yang juga menjabat Rektor STMIK Syaikh Zainuddin NW Anjani.

Meskipun Forum Pengurangan Risiko Bencana Kabupaten Lombok Timur baru seumur jagung, tetapi mereka sudah melakukan langkah nyata terkait pengurangan risiko bencana. Sosialisasi kepada masyarakat tentang ancaman puting beliung dan banjir rajin mereka lakukan karena Lombok Timur sangat rentan akan ancaman dua jenis bencana ini. Termasuk yang mereka lakukan adalah melakukan sosialisasi bagi mahasiswa melalui kegiatan kuliah umum. “Langkah ke depan kami ingin di Lombok Timur ada UKM khusus tentang penanggulangan bencana dan KKN tematik penanggulangan bencana bisa dimasukkan kurikulum. Untuk itu dalam waktu dekat kami akan mengundang para pimpinan perguruan tinggi swasta yang ada di Lombok Timur untuk membahas rencana ini,” kata M. Mugni.
Rumusan Strategis

Setelah melalui proses diskusi selama dua hari akhirnya peserta berhasil merumuskan rekomendasi yang akan diteruskan kepada Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan dalam hal ini Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi dan BNPB untuk ditindaklanjuti pelaksanaannya. Kelima rumusan strategis itu adalah:
1) Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi perlu mendorong perguruan tinggi untuk segera membentuk lembaga di bidang kebencanaan yang melibatkan civitas akademika khususnya mahasiswa,
2) Pemerintah melalui Direktorat Jendaral Pendidikan Tinggi Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan agar memasukkan materi penanggulangan bencana menjadi materi kompetensi dasar di dalam kurikulum perguruan tinggi,
3) Direktorat Jendaral Pendidikan Tinggi lebih menambahkan tema-tema kebencanaan di dalam kegiatan dan program kreativitas maupun penalaran mahasiswa,
4) Direktorat Jendaral Pendidikan Tinggi mendorong perguruan tinggi menjadikan materi kebencanaan sebagai salah satu program KKN,
5) Direktorat Jendaral Pendidikan Tinggi mengambil peran untuk memfasilitasi kemitraan dalam pelaksanaan Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi antara Perguruan Tinggi, BNPB, BPBD, LSM, swasta, dan masyarakat dalam penanggulangan bencana.

Para peserta lokakarya bertekad bahwa hasil dan manfaat yang didapat dari lokakarya ini akan mereka bagi di lingkungan kampus mereka sehingga bisa menjelma menjadi aksi nyata. “Sepulang dari acara ini saya akan audiensi dengan rektorat untuk membicarakan bahwa nantinya penanggulangan kebencanaan bisa menjadi kompetensi standar yang wajib dimiliki oleh setiap lulusan Unsyiah. Karena Aceh pernah mengalami sendiri kejadian bencana, hendaknya saat ini penanganan kebencanaan tidak hanya berfokus pada saat bencana itu terjadi, tetapi juga kesiapsiagaan sebelum bencana terjadi serta fase rehabilitasi dan pemulihan. Harapan saya juga nantinya koordinasi lintas sektoral antar pemangku kepentingan yang mengurusi kebencanaan lebih baik lagi,” kata Tilaili Ibrahim dosen Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Syiah Kuala Banda Aceh.

Lain lagi tekad Haris Rahadianto, mahasiswa Teknik Informatika Politeknik Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya. “Selain mensosialisasikan hasil lokakarya di kalangan mahasiswa juga lingkungan tempat tinggal saya, dari kegiatan ini saya mendapat ide untuk menciptakan game kesiapsiagaan bencana bagi anak-anak dan software untuk sistem peringatan dini terhadap bencana,” tekadnya.

Rangkaian kegiatan seminar dan lokakarya ini juga diperkuat dengan hasil pemikiran mahasiswa terkait persoalan kebencanaan. Hasil pemikiran tersebut mereka tuangkan dalam bentuk tulisan ilmiah populer dan menjadi salah satu syarat mengikuti lokakarya ini. Untuk mengapresiasi pemikiran mahasiswa tersebut penyelenggara memberikan penghargaan kepada tiga buah karya tulisan terbaik.

Agung Maldi Saputra mahasiswa Universitas Bengkulu berhasil menjadi kampiun untuk tulisannya yang berjudul “Peran Mahasiswa dalam Penanggulangan Bencana”. Selain itu selama kegiatan lokakarya peserta bisa mendapatkan banyak informasi tentang kebencanaan dari materi publikasi yang dibuat oleh lembaga-lembaga sosial kemanusiaan. Jalan menuju kesiapsiagaan itu masih panjang. Tetapi dengan semangat dan kerja keras niscaya itu semua akan berbuah hasil yang positif, dan mahasiswa adalah pionirnya. *

text and photos by Nugroho Arif Prabowo

Female Food Hero – Grow in Indonesia

Food fighters The struggle for survival

Andreas D. Arditya, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Feature | Sun, March 31 2013, 11:42 A

Mama Rebecca (far left) poses with her women group in Samabusa village in Nabire, Papua. (courtesy of Oxfam’s Indonesia)

The world is relying on farmers — there are more than a billion of them, half in Asia — but they themselves are fighting for their lives.

Much of agriculture around the globe is still in the hands of small-scale producers, despite rapid urbanization and an increase of large-scale commercial farming, according to a report published last year by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), one of the world’s most influential international development and environment policy research organizations.

Agriculture in Indonesia, just as in China and India, comprises mostly small farms. Almost 90 percent of the 22 million farms in Indonesia are less than 2 hectares.

The IIED report said there were huge expectations for small producers, with many seeing them as the key to addressing the challenges of rural poverty, food security and climate change.

In Indonesia, the problem has been made worse by harvest failures, a government inability to ensure food security and insufficient attention given to local farmers.

However, a few women have been working toward food self-reliance in their own communities, inspiring others across the country to do the same.

In a village in Samabusa in Nabire, Papua, Rebecca — who like many other older women in the archipelago’s easternmost area have “Mama” added to their names — began her struggle to feed her three children after her husband died in 1992.

Mama Rebecca, a native of Biak — located to the north of Samabusa — arrived on the coast with her late husband, Piet Baransano, who was a teacher assigned to Samabusa, in 1975.

“In 1975 there were only six houses in Samabusa. A few years later, wood companies came and soon a port was constructed, which started the influx of non-native foods, such as rice, sugar, tea, coffee and salt,” Mama Rebecca, who is in her 70s, recalled. She said she did not realize the effect that non-native food would have on the eating habits of local residents until her husband’s death.

“I had no money to buy those foods, but I had to feed my kids,” Mama Rebecca said.

She then decided to make use a plot of land at her house, planting cassava, sweet potatoes and a variety of Araceae plants known locally as bete, talas and vegetables.

She later began approaching other women in the village, most of them widows, to join her and start to grow their own food.  

“I told them we had to farm because we cannot grow rice here,” she said.

Soon, a total of 21 women from different tribes — namely the Wate, Dani, Serui and Biak — joined her farm.

 “We later also asked some men to help us farm, to help with the harder physical work,” she said.

Mama Rebecca said that their group did not sell their products. “We are using them for our own needs. We are not expecting money from this,” she says.

Her group also decided to revive cultivation of sera’e, a native edible plant in the Samabusa area found in the jungle.

 “I remember eating sera’e when I first arrived in Samabusa, but it has been forgotten. Planting sera’e is my way of thanking Samabusa for what it has given to my family,” she said.

Mama Rebecca has been recognized as one of seven Indonesian Women Food Heroes 2013 by British-based aid agency Oxfam and the Alliance for Prosperous Villages (ADS).

The others are Jumiati, a farmer and fisherwoman from Sei Ngalawan, Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatra; Habibah, fisherwoman and fish farmer from Marunda Kepu, North Jakarta; Suparjiyem, farmer from Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta; Marlina Rambu Meha, farmer from East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara; Siti Rofi’ah, farmer from Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara; and Siti Rahmah, farmer from Pitu Sunggu, South Sulawesi.

In a different village on the opposite side of the archipelago from Mama Rebecca 32-year-old Jumiati was also driven by a need to feed her family.

The native of Sei Ngalawan village in Serdang Berdagai, had accepted her fate as the wife of a poor fisherman, Sutrisno, who like many other fishermen in the area, did not own his own boat and worked on boats owned by others.

The boatless fishermen go fishing and later split their catches with the boat owners.

Jumiati, however, decided that her world had to change after the birth of her first child in 2002.

“I told myself and my husband there’s got to be other way to raise income for our family,” Jumiati said.

Remembering a piece of local wisdom, Jumiati and her husband began planting mangrove trees at a beach near her house. The beach had been badly damaged by erosion that began in the 1980s.

“The saying goes that the lusher the coast is, the more fish there will be. So, I planted the trees using seeds from a few mangroves left on the beach, disregarding the mocking comments from our neighbors,” she said.

Later in 2005, with the support of her husband and the help of a friend, Jumiati established a women’s group in her village and set up a credit union.

“I had a hard time convincing the women to set up the group. Most of them cannot read, let alone graduate from elementary school,” she recalled. “They thought they couldn’t do much.”

Besides an income for family, Jumiati also made use of the Muara Tanjung Credit Union to fund her mangrove planting project.

As of early this year, Jumiati and her group has managed to plant mangrove trees along a coastal area covering 12 hectares.

Villagers now are able to catch crabs, mussels and fish around the roots of the shrubs.

Jumiati and her group experimented on taking better advantage of the mangrove trees. The group has been successful in producing crackers and tea from a species of mangrove called jeruju, while from the fruit of pidada, they make syrup and from the avicena they make sweet snacks and cake flour.

The credit union now also supports a fishermen’s cooperative set up by her husband, Muara Maimbai.

Richard Mower, Oxfam’s Indonesia director, said that the women have done greater work than just being able to provide food for their families on their own.

“They have become a light for the women around them in the community, leading them to come together, organizing them and becoming true leaders in their communities.”

Links: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/03/31/food-fighters-the-struggle-survival.html

Facebook – Grow in Indonesia links:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grow-Indonesia/154985337990693

Female Food Hero – Grow in Indonesia

Habibah: Inspiring fisherwoman from Marunda

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | People | Fri, March 15 2013,

Paper Edition | Page: 28

Courtesy of Oxfam Indonesia

She is a fisherwoman and along with her two companions — who are also women — she sails out to sea in the hope of catching fish. As they only use a small boat, they cannot be too far from the coast, so their hauls are not as large as the fishermen’s.

“We just catch the nearby fish. We sell the fish to help our husbands,” Habibah, the fisherwoman, told The Jakarta Post, smiling.

Recently, Habibah was selected as one of seven female food resilience heroines from Indonesia. The heroines are working to build a movement for good food — food that is grown well and shared fairly.

The event was supported by Oxfam and Aliansi Desa Sejahtera (ADS) to show that women play important role in the supply of food to family and community.

People in Marunda know Habibah as a multi-tasking woman. She can be a fisherwoman, scallop seeker, a fish trader and a shrimp paste maker. Habibah’s income is even higher than her fisherman husband, who depends on monsoons.

The 50-year-old fisherwoman lives in Marunda Kepu, Cilincing subdistrict, North Jakarta. She comes from a long line of fisherman who lived and plied Marunda’s shores and seas for generations.

After marrying Ghobang, 50, Habibah helped her husband to support the family. Habibah is the perfect portrait of woman from the north coast of Jakarta.

Koran Tempo daily recently reported that a study from the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (Kiara) revealed that women living in north coast area in Jakarta spend 17 hours every day making money to support their families. It also showed that 48 percent of a family’s income was from the fisherwomen’s economic activities.

Habibah still remembers her youth and shared that although her parents were poor, they still could find fish or other sea creatures and so survived.

“In that time the sea water was clean and we had heavy mangrove areas. There were abundant fishes and crabs near us, so we did not need to sail far away from the coast,” Habibah shared.

The situation has changed dramatically as Habibah grew up and started her own family. The sea is now polluted. The massive sea reclamation and depletion of mangrove areas means that fisherwomen like herself face great difficulties when trying to catch fish or other sea creatures nearby.

Meanwhile, fishermen, like her husband, must sail very far from the coast just to find fish and their hauls usually are only small. The situation only gets worse during the west monsoon when no fishermen can sail.

Another problem Habibah faces is that she can no longer depend on her shrimp paste production anymore. In 1980 to 2000, Habibah was able to produce at least 50 kilograms of shrimp paste every day, thanks to the huge amount of shrimps bought home by her husband.

But now, she just produces only 5 kilograms of shrimp paste a day because it is difficult to find shrimp.

“I was thinking how do I help my husband? His income is less than Rp 30,000 (US$3) a day, so, I became a scallop seeker and began scavenging to support our family,” Habibah said.

Along with her children, Habibah seeks ontay (clam) on the sand beach after tides. One bucket of clams sells for Rp 10,000. Usually they get two and a half buckets of clam everyday during west monsoon.

Habibah’s family will consume half of the clams they find and sell the rest of it.

Besides ontay, she is a seeker for flat-footed scallop, locally known as kacho. This kind of scallop is easily found on the coast, but collectors must be careful because of its sharp shell.

From kacho Habibah earns Rp 70,000 everyday. “Ontay and kacho contain calcium that is good for teeth and bones,” she said.

Her effort to seek kacho and ontay inspired other women, frustrated with polluted sea water and unpredictable weather in Marunda, to follow suit.  

“I encourage the women in my area to do something rather than nothing,” she said, adding that she gathers all the kachos found by Marunda’s women to sell.

She acknowledged that lessons from NGOs like WALHI and Kiara inspired her to established a womens group in Marunda called Mekar Baru.  As many as 20 women are members.

Six months ago, Habibah established a cooperative with her group to prevent loan sharks.

Marunda is just like other poverty area, loan sharks often make the fishermen’s life harder.  Habibah said her colleagues often borrowed money from loan sharks thst they had to pay back with a high interest rate.

“Today we have only Rp 4.5 million of capital in our cooperative, but I am sure it will increase,” Habibah, who is active in Persatuan Perempuan Nelayan Indonesia (PPNI), said.

Habibah is optimistic about the future of her coastal project.

“I want to establish a shrimp paste factory with my group as well as a free medical clinic for the fishermen here,” Habibah, who didn’t even finish elementary school, said.

Links: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/03/15/habibah-inspiring-fisherwoman-marunda.html

Communities can protect themselves from natural disasters, says Oxfam

Elly Burhaini Faizal, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sun, March 24 2013, 12:28 PM

Fewer communities will be affected by natural disasters if they become actively involved in disaster preparedness and emergency response activities, says a representative of a prominent NGO.

“Every village is different and their own people understand what happened in the past and what may happen in the future,” Oxfam Indonesia country director Richard Mawer told The Jakarta Post.

Mawer was speaking in relation to the progress of Building Resilience in Eastern Indonesia, a disaster risk reduction project that has been developed by Oxfam Indonesia in 16 districts since June 2009.

Communities in Nuri and Welo villages in Larantuka regency, one of the Building Resilience project sites in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), can now avoid significant damage during a disaster after they developed volunteer village preparedness teams to map out disaster risks and identify how to minimize them.

Mawer said the village teams would play a major role in protecting their villages from future floods, landslides, forest fires and even volcano eruptions. The teams looked at a whole range of issues, from analyzing the risks to understanding how they responded to these risks, and then took the necessary action to avoid damage caused by disasters.

These actions included cleaning river beds and building up river walls, planting trees to slow down the water flow and training villagers with first aid skills and on how to build temporary shelters.

“They are looking at what they can do to ensure that the water coming down the hill will not wash away their houses and put their families at risk,” said Mawer.

Through the program, women have been demonstrating what important roles they can play in village affairs, including in disaster preparedness and emergency response and in identifying future priorities for village development funds. Some of them have also initiated credit unions for women.

“It’s encouraging to see that the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency [BPBD] Larantuka plans to replicate this approach to all 250 villages in the region over the coming years,” said Mawer.

A Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Forum established in Larantuka in 2012 ensured that the BPBD, local communities and other stakeholders, including other government ministries, local NGOs and religious organizations, could work closely together and learn from each other in dealing with disaster risks.

see links:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/03/24/communities-can-protect-themselves-natural-disasters-says-oxfam.html

Unicef, Oxfam and partner distributing hygiene kits to almost 2,500 household affected by Jakarta’s floods

Newsflash from Jakarta Floods January 2013

Unicef, Oxfam and partner distribute hygiene kits to almost 2,500 households affected by Jakarta’s floods

Country Director Oxfam in Indonesia, Richard Mawer, altogether with The representative of UNICEF, Angela Kearney, visited Jakarta-floods affected people at Bukit Duri Village, Tebet, South Jakarta on Wednesday (23/1).  On this occasion Richard and Angela met families who were cleaning their houses.  Both expressed their sympathy upon the suffering of the people caused by the floods.  They also had a chance to visit a school  that was being cleaned by the teachers after having been inundated for almost 5 days.  The visit was ended by supporting Bina Masyarakat Peduli (BMP), an Oxfam’s NGO partner, in hygiene kit distribution to 1,000 families.

The distribution is part of the cooperation between Oxfam and UNICEF in supporting BMP to distribute some 2,500 hygiene kits,  jerrycans and sarong to 2,491 households affected by the Jakarta floods.  The floods in Jakarta started at 15/1 and worsen nearly every day up to 21/1.  Almost 300,000 people were affected, making almost 30,000 people staying in evacuation sites for nearly a week.  The floods also has claimed 20 fatalities.

The floods caused by the torrential rain in the whole Jakarta area including in its neighboring cities.  The National Disaster Management Agency revealed that the rainy season is expected to happen up to end February 2013 and potentially cause severe hydrometeorological disaster.  In early year 2013, the Agency recorded that the hydrometeorological disaster such as floods, whirlwind, tidal wave, and landslide have struck the country for 67 times and have claimed 46 lives.