Indonesia, Asia

IDN02 - Community Empowerment

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Key Partnership Information:

• Partnership Ref.: IDN02

• Commenced: 27/05/2019

• Funding Status: No Current Donor

• Partnership Type: Community / Agriculture Development, Micro-enterprise / Micro-loans, Training / Education

• Funding Size: $3,000 - $7,999

• Annual Budget: US$ 5,500

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Current Partnership Impact:

• 200 families are being assisted

• 100 children are being supported into schooling

• 20 families are accessing microloans

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Other Partnership Information:

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Partnership Overview

The tsunamis in December 2004 and May 2005 on Nias Island, near the West coast of Sumatra, caused many families to flee to safer areas in the middle of Sumatra. These families came without any belongings to start a new life. 

The needs of housing, education, sanitation and health care where high and a group of volunteers tried to assist in whatever way they could; handing out food and clothing and conducting informal teaching activities with the children. These activities formed the start of a long term commitment to help people in need to change their situation. The displaced people of Nias are mostly Christians but soon also poor Muslim families that lived in the area asked for assistance widening the work of the volunteers. The enthusiastic response of the children and village leaders gave the volunteers courage and motivation to offer similar educational activities in several other villages where they had seen a need for this, thus spreading their scope of activities to eight villages of both Muslim and Christian background. Over time, commitment for transformation has grown in six of the eight communities resulting in this organisation currently focusing on those six village areas.  

They have numerous aspects of engagement including supporting poor families with loans with which to establish small businesses, assisting young people to obtain an education, a preschool/kindergarten for 100 children from poor families, and running camps and seminars for young people and leadership development. However, their primary two are:
1) The development of the young leaders who are growing the work. They have a strong leadership development structure in place and many are emerging into leadership. They are doing such a good job with these young people that once they get an education, they are often lured away.
2) There are many young people in Indonesia and the communities in which they operate. Helping to educate children is core to their operations. At their main base they have a preschool / kindergarten with 100 children and also provide after school learning support for 150 primary school aged children. In addition, they support a number of young people in education, young people who have become leaders and who would otherwise have little or no access to higher level education.  

History of Partnership

A good friend of BHW told us about these people, initially about their coffee as he thought it might be suitable to import into New Zealand alongside our La Mai brand but unfortunately it was not the right profile. However, over time we heard more about them and decided it would be good to visit and see what they were doing. 

Early in 2018 BHW's New Partnership Facilitator visited along with the good friend who had introduced us. He spent three days looking around, visiting, talking and listening to their story. It became obvious quite quickly that these people were doing some good work empowering young people and helping communities develop. Communication was continued and another visit was made in early 2019.

A number of other people who have been involved with the key people live in New Zealand and various conversations were had about the potential of this partnership. It was decided that we should become involved and in September 2019 partnership began. 

Beneficiaries

The major groups of beneficiaries will be:
1) The poor families trying to eke out a living from working in the brick kilns. They will benefit in two ways; i) by being able to access loans with which to run small businesses like brick making or small shops and ii) their older children being able to access secondary and tertiary education. 

2) The children themselves who get access to secondary and tertiary education. This would be totally unreachable without some intervention by a donor. And also the young people in their leadership development programme.  

What We Like About The Partnership

These are very good people who have already developed a strong network and ministry to many people.
They are committed to training and already young people with real leadership potential are emerging.
They involve their team in decision making. There is a real collaborative feel in the team meetings. People speak up and are not afraid to express themselves.
Real change is being effected, lives and communities are already impacted and it is only really in the early stages.  

 

Key People

Leadership Profile

AM was born in 1978 in North Sumatra. He is the second child of five siblings and grew up in a small farming village. He is Bataknese and grew up as a traditional Christian. His father was a teacher as well as a farmer. In 1993 A became a committed believer after his brother and in 1994 his parents and siblings followed. 

In 1998 he moved to the middle of Sumatra and studied international relationships. In 2002 he then initiated a city wide ministry to reach out to youth in the city. This connected him to many people in the city. His heart was and still is to see more people working together to reach out and influence people.  From 2005-2010 he spent all his free time helping people in different villages. In 2010, when the work grew and people stepped up to support him financially to focus full time on this work, he quit his job as the manager of a language school. 

In 2010 A also started an English Course Centre in Dumai, a city five hours away. The Centre now runs well although does not make a lot of profit. He started this in the hope of some income but also to strengthen his identity as a businessman rather than just doing social work. A’s main focus has been to develop the ministry. He has a small pineapple farm and coffee business. The pineapple farm together with the Centre in Dumai has proven to be a good connection. The coffee business is still small but again strengthens A’s identity as a businessman.  

M, his wife, was born in 1976 in the Netherlands and has two sisters. She grew up in the Netherlands in a Christian home and made a personal commitment in 1995. She has been an active member of an evangelical church in the Netherlands, serving in different roles of Sunday school, youth ministry, drama and music.  

In 1995 she went to India where she joined a project working with the church in slum areas. This is where she felt called to serve the vulnerable children in the world that would guide her later in life to Indonesia. She studied a Bachelor in social studies focusing on residential care for vulnerable and neglected children. She went to Egypt for a few months after which she studied a Master in social science focusing on culture and management. For many years she had side jobs in residential care for children and handicapped. 

In 2002 M went to the Northern Moluccas in Indonesia for 1.5 years to work with World Vision. Her role was to set up houses for children to play and find peace in an after-conflict situation. From 2004-2008 she worked back in the Netherlands as a family counsellor for intensive family treatment for multi-problem families. Then from 2008-2009 she went to the UK to follow a preparation course for working in Indonesia long term. She has lived in Indonesia since 2009 where she met A and got excited about his vision and the work that he was initiating. She worked for two years for several NGO’s all over Indonesia as a consultant doing different jobs in training, evaluating and advising social projects for children. 

In 2011 they got married and since then she has been working full time for this ministry. 

Other People Involved

Z was born on Nias Island in 1994. His father was married and had four children. He then divorced and remarried and had seven children with his second wife of which Z the fifth. His father was a tailor. In the family there were often conflicts between the siblings of the two wives. Z went to elementary and high school on Nias island. His family is traditional Christian but during high school he learned more about the gospel. He has made a personal commitment and is brave as he works with people. 

Five years ago Z came to this area to visit his sister who was making bricks. All of his siblings live in simple conditions and no one was able to really support him. He learned about this ministry, saw the after school learning support program and sometimes joined the various activities while also helping his brother with making bricks. He showed a sincere interest and grew in his faith. Z was eager to continue his education so was encouraged to show his faith and a serving attitude in helping others. He tried a few other jobs instead of brick making but that did not work out. He left the area for a while and came back after 1.5 years to make bricks again and during that time he helped again as a volunteer. In January 2018 he started working for this ministry as a part-time staff member teaching the children at the after school learning support activities, and is supported financially with his studies. His major is English teacher training. He is also looking after the Learning Garden (the building) and tries to be an agent for change both in his own community and where he currently lives. He is still part of the Junior Servant Leadership program as a participant and is still young in his work experience but he loves the vision and mission of the ministry. 

H was born in North Sumatra and is from Batak ethnicity. She grew up in a traditional Christian family. She is number three of five siblings. When she was 13 she lost her father which was a difficult time for her but her mother offered her a stable home even though the circumstances where simple. She came to this area to study economic education in 2007. In 2011 a friend brought her to an event run by this ministry. She was very enthusiastic about the work and started working part-time for the after school learning program. H came to a more personal faith during one of our first team retreats in 2012.   

She finished her studies in 2012 and joined full-time doing several jobs for the after school learning program, accountancy and training program. In January 2017 she changed roles to be headmistress for the preschool as well as continuing to do the accounting. She works very diligently and is full of faith. Staff members often go to her with their personal problems and she brings a lot of stability to the team.  

Since June 2017 she has been studying a Masters in economic education sponsored by the ministry which she hopes to finish at the end of 2019. 

 

Vision And Annual Strategy

Vision 

Helping people to grow... from poverty to sufficiency, from weakness to strength, from ignorance to knowledge, from hopelessness to hope... until all people reach their full potential. 
To bring peace within communities through brotherly love. 

Strategy

There are many aspects to this:
1) They run an after school learning program three times a week which is a foundational part of what they do. They are constantly looking for new ideas to make it more creative.
2) They run a preschool / kindergarten for 100 children.
3) They work on supporting families with their documents, which is a tough job, and help people to access health care. This is a major issue for many people, especially those who have been shifted from their place of birth. Without documents they cannot go to school, get medical assistance or participate in the community.
4) They run a micro-credit program and have a steady group of 20 adults who attend the business and community development training.
5) They organise an annual camp for anyone associated with them. In 2019 they had 250 participants from six different villages, young to old, join them.
6) They also run Junior Servant Leadership camps, staff trainings and retreats, and undertake intentional mentoring on various topics. 

 

Annual Budget

The budget here is US$5,500 and this will be for discretionary use, wherever they see the greatest needs, but with a focus on poverty reduction (loans for small businesses) and for the development of young people. As the partnership develops other aspects of support, especially around income generation, will be explored.  

 

Personal Testimony

Real "Life Change" Stories

Four years ago the father of J came to the annual camp together with John. That year the camp's theme was "Breakthrough". J's father was inspired through one of the lessons to take a risk and do something different to see his income grow. He started a small vegetable store which is now running so well he is able to financially support his family. 

N is the father of a boy in the kindergarten. He was chained up when he was 15 because he was so aggressive. He was one of the first people served through this ministry as they unchained him, prayed for him, bathed him and gave him food. Since then he has managed to live a normal life and now works as a brick maker. He got married and has a five-year-old son who attends the preschool now. Recently he was buried under clay when the clay slid down. His wife dug him up and he survived but with two broken legs. This ministry supported them through his healing process with encouragement, food, transport to the doctor and a wheelchair. Although there is still a long way to go they believe he can walk again and support his family in the future.