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Projects of the Month - December 2000
AusAID
in Indonesia Total development assistance to Indonesia for the financial year 2000 - 2001 will be $102.5 million. This represents a more than 15% increase since the onset of the economic crisis. Kang Guru Radio English is proud to give you up to date information on the wide variety of AusAID projects in Indonesia. Each month we will feature a different AusAID project. Information will be taken from the radio programs. Photographs will provide a more comprehensive view of the projects and their activities.
Top left:
Gaynor Dawson at work in the field in Kendari with Healthy Mothers Healthy
Babies Project in the Kendari District The Indonesia Australia Small Activities Scheme (SAS) is one of the most flexible and responsive elements of Australia's aid program to Indonesia. SAS grants are made to groups, usually non-governmental, which can show they have a well planned community-based project and have the capacity to implement it and to manage the funds. This month Kang Guru features two exciting SAS Projects. Both are not only interesting but vital to the future of all people in Indonesia.
Target Groups
Rifka Annisa Women Crisis Centre
Interview with Elli and Wahid in Yogyakarta, October 19, 2000
Kangguru (KG) We are in Yogya today, talking to Elli Nur Hayati and Elli is the Executive Director of Rifka Annisa. Elli (E) Hi. KG OK, we, Elli, how are you today. E Oh I'm fine, thank you but I have a little bit flu so my voice is I think is very nice, ha ha. KG Elli you're involved here in Yogya with the Rifka Annisa Women Crisis Centre. Can you give me some background about the Centre? E I joined to this Crisis Centre since 1993. I have been here for seven years and the background of this is in the community, in our community that women are suffering a lot but they don't have a place to talk about their problems. People usually say, “Oh it's common for women to have such kinds of problems”. KG What sort of problems are you talking about? E Eh well, it's the problem that is usually faced by the women. They have difficulties in their relationship with the husband and also they have difficulties in earning their own finances. KG So they have problems but not all women of course. KG At this Crisis Centre, how do you help women with this types of problems? E We provide several services for these women. We have counseling services and we have a litigation service. So if the woman wants to pursue someone who beats her or maybe betrayed her then they can report their problem to us and we will accompany them to the court. We also have a support group so that the women can meet with each other. Now the women who have similar problems can talk to each other to share experiences about how to handle the problems. Besides we also have a Community Education Program to raise the community awareness of women's problems, especially violence against women. KG Is it difficult for women in this situation to actually come and talk to you? E Well during the first years of our activities, yes, it was difficult for them to come because the society barrier is very hard. Most women tend to hide their problems especially if the problem is about marriage. People tend to say that it's really a secret problem for them and for their own family and especially to the wife, it's very bad if they tell to another people about her problem with the husband because the husband is somebody that she must admire. So it will be a shameful if a wife tells to another people about her problems with their husband. KG Have you had any reactions from husbands or from men in the families about what you're doing here? E Of course we have had a lot. Sometimes we get a faxes from men who don't want to give their identity so that they sent us a fax that says bad things. And sometimes we also got phone calls in middle of the night and they say something not very nice, it's a kind of harassment, harassment, hm and also we got a visit from husband that came with a knife in his hand to threaten us. It's our daily experience. KG What support do you get from local community, perhaps the Indonesian government local authority? E We got a lot of support lately. But previously of course, as a new organisation we faced a lot of constraints especially in the community. And about five years ago, violence against women wasn't recognised as a really serious problem for the community. As I mentioned before we have community education program in which we show to the community data that we have about the women who complain or report their violence problem within the home and also the impact that they face for themselves and also for their children. Then people began to realise that it's really our problem and not a western woman's problem as they thought. KG OK, you think some people suspected that violence against women in the family situation is a western problem. Hm, but do you think the problem has been in Indonesian society for a long time or is it something new? E Yeah, I believe that this problem existed in this world, around the world, all countries, it happens to many women in the world. But it's only a matter of how people handle this thing and we just started dealing with this matter only in the last maybe ten or five years. KG Does the Indonesian government take a role in this new approach? E Er yes, now we have more an open government and because of the reformation movement that we just walking through. And now we have empowerment, a women's empowerment Ministry which has a Zero Tolerance Policy. It's a kind of commitment between the government and the community of Indonesia to combat violence against women. So now we have a lot of friends, I mean we have many many agents that are willing to combat the violence against women issue. KG Hm Elli, perhaps you could give me a bit more information about the support you're receiving for your new Women Crisis Centre Pilot Project. E We believe that violence against women is everybody's responsibility so we try to develop a new program. It's called Community Based Crisis Centre and this project is funded by AusAID and the Australian Government. And in this program we tried also to involve men also to handle this problem yeah. In this Crisis Centre we have men, male staff who are working with the Community Based Crisis Centre that we just started. In June there will be more men that will be involved in this activity. KG So it's not women helping other women only but men are also involved in your activities. Perhaps you'd like to introduce me to Mr Wahid who is working with you. E Oh ya, we actually have three male staff and one of these three males is Wahid who has been working here for at least one year. And he has been facing men in the community a lot of time. Yah, this is Wahid.
KG Wahid, why are you involved in this project? Wahid (W) We know that violence against women becomes a problem not only for women but also for men and women. And as a man, I feel that gender can cause many problems for me, something like maybe because the people define that men have to be leaders, to be very high men and then. It's so hard for men like me to do like that. KG The problems are not just for the women. Men have some problems in this area as well, right. W Yes. KG What is your background and what is your job here at the Rafika Annisa Women Crisis Centre? W I'm a graduate from National Institute of Islamic Thought. KG That is here in Jogya? W Yeah, in Jogyakarta at Indonesia IAIN Sunan Kalijaga. And I learned about Islamic Family Law over there and this is helpful for me to work in this organisation, I mean in Women Crisis Centre. We know that the most people around here in Jogyakarta, in Indonesia are Moslem and we need to know so much about religion to promote awareness about the problems here. If the women speaks about women violation maybe they don't believe about that. But if the men speak about women violation they will more believe to us that the women violation is a problem and a big issues of our culture. KG Elli, could you give me some information about the types of violence that occur and perhaps some of the statistics for your Centre? E Yeah, domestic violence especially wife abuse because domestic violence also happens between parents and children but we try to separate it. We call it wife abuse and then the next case is dating violence. KG What do you mean by dating violence E Dating violence we call in Indonesia “kekerasan dalam pacaran” and then unwanted pregnancies, rapes, sexual harassment and child abuse. KG Now what's the difference between sexual harassment and wife abuse? E It's totally different. Sexual harassment could happen between men and women who don't know each other but wife abuse is in our context is always violence from the husband to the wife. So it could be happen that a wife is suffering sexual harassment from the husband but it's not the term that we mean. KG So sexual harassment could be in the workplace or in the streets, that sort of thing. E For this year we have statistics for from January until June 2000. We've got one hundred and seventy two thousand cases and it's always wife abuse that. KG That's an average of one a day. Which types of violence is the most common. E Yeah, it's wife abuse that has had the highest ranking every year since 1994 in Rafika Annisa. KG So, Elli, some individual statistics for those areas for the period of January to June 2000. E Wife abuse that we call Kekerasan terhadap istri there are 104 cases. Pelecehan seksual or sexual harassment 11 cases, perkosaan or rape, we have 17 cases. Kekerasan dalam keluarga or family violence, we have 4 cases. KG Hm Elli, what advise can you give to women in particular who are suffering some types of abuse. What do you think they should do? E Hm, I would like suggest for women who are suffering from any kind of violence to look for assistance, either go to Crisis Centre or to local police department or whoever. But you'd better speak up because violence will affect you as an individual and it will also affect your family including your children. So you have to solve your problem. KG Do you have a hot line number here in Jogya that people can ring? E Oh yes, we have a hot line service. You can contact us to this number. This is Yogyakarta area code 0274 and the number, the hot line number is 518 720. So it's 0274 518 720. KG And if women contacted you from outside the Jogya area you would still be able to perhaps give them some assistance? E Yes, of course. If they have difficulty in telephone billing then they write letter to Rafika Annisa, then Rafika Annisa will reply to the letter.
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