Close to paradise,
far from prosperity
A Malang-based community development agency is the
Indonesian winner of the National Energy Globe Foundation award for 2016.
Yayasan Daya Pertiwi (Daya
Pertiwi Foundation - DPF) will now compete through audience and on-line voting
against 177 country winners for the grand award of 10,000 Euros (Rp 152
million) later this year. There were more than 1,700 applicants world-wide.
The Austrian-based environmental awards started in 1999. Last year’s Indonesian winner was Yayasan Ekosistem Gili Indah for its
work in restoring coral reefs using renewable energy in islands off Lombok. A
reforestation project in Ethiopia won the global award.
The DPF has been recognized for its Integrated Rural Development
- Social Forestry and Water Development project on Nusa Penida, an island between
Bali and Lombok.
Despite being just 45 minutes by motor boat from one of the
world’s most lush and famous tourist resorts where billions have been invested
in luxury accommodation, Nusa Penida is arid, poor and overlooked.
About 45,000 people live in 40 villages. There are few tourist lures other than a bird
sanctuary for the rare Bali starling, and diving sites which are difficult to
access.
DPF’s Nusa Penida project has had a
long and bumpy history. According to Foundation chair Made Polak the first work
started in 1987 with limited funds.
These dried up two years later until German agency Bread for the World got involved in 1991.
They dropped out three years later,
but were replaced by another German group, the Church Development Service. That
aid lasted until the Dutch Inter-church Cooperative for Development Cooperation
offered support.
“This disjointed funding and the
small amount allocated each time has extended the project,” Polak said. “The
total amount spent since we started, including our own money, has been around
one million Euros (Rp 15 billion.)
“Projects like this go through several
stages involving planning, education, training and implementation. These might take up to seven years in East
Java, but twice that time on Nusa Penida.
“The island has severe geographical conditions, little
infrastructure and high illiteracy. The people had little work. We had to help
strengthen them to be self sufficient.”
The project’s economic programs include cashew plantations, fuel
and fodder crops and building hundreds of underground tanks to provide
continuity of water supplies for people and stock.
Polak said the reservoirs have been the key to stabilising
the community which suffered from droughts.
“The position of women is less advantageous than in Bali as
they are still subordinate to their husbands,” Polak said.
“This has now changed and various economic ventures have
been developed, like animal husbandry, handicrafts and processing nuts.
“Rehabilitation of degraded land and the underground
rainwater catchments have transformed bare limestone rock into a green and
flourishing landscape. Thanks to the reforestation program annual rainfall has
increased from 42 to 65 days.
“The trees will help increase soil fertility and prevent
erosion. Forage planting ensures stock have feed throughout the year.”
Polak said winning the award for Indonesia drew world attention
to the needs of isolated communities, and showed how international funds could
make a real and lasting difference. The award would also boost morale among the
Nusa Penida people and the project’s seven staff.
(Breakout).
Turning hate into aid
Leonardo Sahuburua’s journey to working with YDP in Nusa Penida
started with violence and a chance encounter far away.
The man was in a uniform and had a gun. “Are you a
troublemaker?” he shouted.
“No,” replied the young environmentalist. He could smell alcohol on the man’s breath,
they were that close.
Maybe the mild response made a difference. Instead of pulling the trigger the man raised
the butt of his machine gun. Sahuburua
put up his arm to ward off the blow and took a heavy hit.
He ran into the bush, jumped off a cliff and tumbled down a
20 meter slope. Then he staggered home
in agony to his parents in Ambon and told them he had to flee. They gave him money and he headed for the
harbor with no clear plan.
The year was 2000, the place the Moluccas. The once peaceful
islands were in the middle of a bitter three-year sectarian conflict pitching
Muslims and Christians against each other. An estimated 700,000 people were
displaced and 5,000 lost their lives.
Sahuburua reasoned it best to head for Bali as it was
unlikely his attackers would pursue him to a place watched by the world.
Covering his wounded arm he got on a boat and sailed away from his province and
eventually into an entirely new life.
What didn’t end was the pain. X rays revealed his arm had been fractured
in the assault, the bone had knit and he needed surgery. He now has a 20 centimeter scar to remind him
that the Ambon experience was no fantasy.
He also discovered that to love and forgive enemies is one
of his faith’s toughest commands.
“I held hate in my stomach towards that man for some time,”
he said. “I don’t know who he was and he didn’t know me.
“Eventually I realized hate wasn’t doing me any good and it
certainly wasn’t affecting him. I had to let go, though I continue to have nightmares.
After working as a tour guide and with a National Geographic
film crew he got a scholarship to attend the Haggai Institute training center
in Hawaii. He was taught leadership skills which have been used in his aid
work.
Who gave the money?
Sahuburua says he doesn’t know.
“That was in 2006 when I was 30,” he said. “It was another turning point in my life,
along with my escape from Ambon.
“I still cannot stand the sight of uniforms – they trigger
the memories. But if I hadn’t been hit
in Ambon I wouldn’t be here on Nusa Penida.”
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(First published in The Jakarta Post 21 June 2016)
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