Oxfam GB in Indonesia In Action

by Geno Teofilo, Oxfam Communication Coordinator, Aceh  

 After traveling with Oxfam in distant corners of Indonesia, I’ve seen staff go to great lengths to help poverty stricken villages without clean water. These communities are often in remote locations, which can be very difficult to reach. They have been wrecked by disaster, and torn by conflict. At times there are no roads or bridges to reach them, and access can be a major problem. When just traveling there is difficult, how are we going to be able to build them a new water system?

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   ”I wanted to make a difference in other people lives” says Vania Kristiani Budiyanto during interview with Oxfam. 

Situated in Ubud area, here is where the IDEP office is located. This morning, Oxfam visited that office and was welcomed by a nice and charming young lady. “Hi I’m Vania! Welcome to IDEP, she said with a big smile. 

Vania is working as a Community Based Disaster Management  (CBDM) Project Officer in IDEP Foundation. As the project officer, she plays an important role in increasing the awareness among people to understand and implement a range of effective actions that can help to reduce the chance of disaster happening in their area, be more prepared if disaster does happen and recover more quickly. 

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Film is a media that has the biggest power in influencing its audiences.  It can capture different points of time in life such as in struggles and happiness, in the form of perfect live portraits.  

One of the uses of film is to empower people which is known as Community Video.  Its role is increasingly more important than before, especially in the past few years. Community Video is a tool to encourage social change because it is based on real experience, need and expectation of a community in a particular place. 

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Religion is a general phenomenon that occurs from ancient time to date. Religion has always been and will always be part of the history of civilization. In a simple language, Religion  is, can be defined as a system of faith and worship, which provides adherents with meaning and purpose in their lives.

However, religion also a powerful institution which shapes gender relation. Gender would not be a problem if women and men were constructed in a fair way. However, in general, the construction is more favorable to men than to women. Different social norms and expectations of men and women have resulted in gender inequalities within our society.

In many case, religion is being used to perpetuate gender inequality, particularly where it is perpetuate perceptions of women’s role in family, society, politics and the workplace.   Consequently, religion can also become one of the Religion can also become one of the important basis for discrimination, exclusion and/or marginalisation, subordination, violent and harmful practices towards women.

This religious based gender inequality is the ‘on-the-ground realilty” for many of us. It is an inescapable landscape for development. Religion is often used to deny the fundamental women’s human rights. It is used to justify women’s marginalisation in decision making positions, which in return has alienated women from participating and influencing civil and political lives.

For those reasons, Oxfam held an Action for Gender Relation in East Asia’s (AGRA) workshop on religion and gender inequalities in Bali (20-21/01) to reflect back on the problems and also share experiences and learn among participants from Oxfam situated in East Asia, particularly Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and also Cambodia.

AGRA is a networking event for Oxfam staffs in the Southeast East Asia region. For more than 10 years, Oxfam has held an annual capacity building workshop focusing on prevailing them pertinent to Gender.