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Read about this remarkable
AusAID activity in Indonesia. The Bali
Rehabilitation Fund (BRF), an AusAID ACCESS activity, is really making
a difference to the lives of the Balinese people.
Bali Rehabilitation Fund (BRF)
The Bali bombing
on 12th October 2002 made tourists afraid to come to Bali for
a long time afterwards.Then after the Bali bomb there was the SARS outbreak,
then the Avian Flu (chicken flu) outbreak, and on top of that the Iraq
war started.Many people in Bali lost their jobs because there were so
few tourists.There were fewer people around to buy handicrafts, get massages
on the beach, take taxis, buy clothes and so on.One less obvious affect
of the lack of tourists was the sale of agricultural goods.Hotels and
restaurants needed less food, so farmers far away were badly affected.Many,
many people who worked in industries that depend on tourism could not
earn enough money to live on.
In March 2003 AusAID started the
Bali Rehabilitation Fund (BRF) as part of the Australian Government
funded Australian
Community Development and Civil Society Strengthening Scheme (ACCESS).The
BRF is a fund of $1.5 million used to improve the opportunities for earning
a living for those Balinese and other Indonesians who were badly affected
by the bombings and the reduction of tourism.
The main tourist area near the bomb,
Kuta, was not the only area that suffered.The bomb had a terrible affect
on the lives of people all over the island.Donna Holden, Manager of the
BRF explains why.
“…quite often the people that work in Kuta are actually paid by the
tourism industry but a lot of their money goes back into the farming community…as
tourism has increased in Bali many local people have actually sold their
land or sold their assets in the village in order to give their children
an education, a higher education so that those children can actually go
and work within the tourism industry in the south of the island…many,
many people lost their jobs in the tourism industry…and returned
to their villages.So what we had was a situation where poor landless families
in the rural parts of the island no longer had any resources that they
could use because they were previously completely dependent on their children
to earn money for them.”
The purpose of the BRF is to provide grants of money to local partners
who can then help people who lost their income or are no longer employed
in the tourism industry.Many of the projects organized by the local partners
involve projects to retrain people in new jobs and give them new skills
so that they can earn money that is not dependant on the tourism industry.These
local partners include local Non Government Organisations (NGOs), community
based organisations, government organisations and local communities themselves.
Donna explains BRF’s involvement:
“Personally we do not implement
our projects. So what we do is we design projects with communities or
with NGOs in response to the identified need of the communities.We provide
technical assistance for the design and then we provide funding for them
to implement the programs.We also continue to monitor the programs, to
look and to provide technical assistance throughout that period of implementation.”
The pig-raising
project in the Jembrana district of west Bali that Ogi and I visited is
a good example of how this BRF money has helped those affected.
Women
and children in Bali tend to have a traditional role of looking after
livestock, especially pigs.BRF worked with a local micro credit organisation
called Dian Bhuana Lestari Found (DINARI) who developed a pig farming
system well suited to the needs of this local community.
The women chosen to participate in the project borrow 1million rupiah
from the micro credit fund.The money is given to them at a very low
rate of interest, maybe 1% or 1.5%. With
this money the women can buy three small pigs and enough food for
the pigs for six months.During the six months they receive support
from a local veterinarian.They also learn how to take care of and
manage the pigs.This includes providing healthy and hygienic
living areas for the pigs. |
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After two months they
sell one or two pigs and usually they receive twice what they paid for
the pigs.This gives them some income to use and some money to pay back
the loan.When the rest of their pigs are six months old they are sold
and the women can make a profit of around 600,000 rupiah.
This means that after only six months the women have paid back
the loan in full, they have received an income during the six months and
they have also made a profit.They can then use this profit to buy more
pigs or they can spend it if they need to.They can then get another loan
from the fund and start again.So far more than three hundred people have
benefited from this pig-raising project.
Now it seems that the benefits are more
then was first expected.It is not just families’ basic incomes that
have been improved.Donna explains,
“Most of the women who have been involved
in that program are saying …money tends to be used much more for
health and education for other members of the family particularly their
children. So as far as we are concerned it has a very strong development
and anti-poverty impact.”
Ogi and I met one of
the ladies involved in the project.Ibu Meliani explains how
this project has helped her family improve their income.
“My husband and I were working in the town but we lost our jobs after
the bomb.My husband was a driver,
delivering sand.Then
after the Bali bomb we lost our jobs and had to come back to the village.We
had no work and we didn’t know what we were going to do.
Then we heard about the DINARI pig project.Now we have an income.We
have been raising pigs now for about a year and a half.
We prefer to live here in the village now.” |
Ibu Meliani’s pigs are a special type of pig. They are
a cross breed of a local Balinese breed and an Australian breed.
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Ibu Meliani explained how DINARI organised training for
her about how to take care of the pigs properly, she learned about the
correct feed for the pigs and how to keep them healthy.The process has
not been without problems for her.When she bought her first pigs some
of them got sick and one of them died. DINARI
helped her out of these early difficulties and gave her half the money
to buy another pig.Now she has been through the six-month process three
times and it’s working very well.She has been making a clear profit
of Rp.300,000.
| Pak Kadek Baktiyasa
(see picture right) is a 25-year-old member of the new Independent
Young Farmers group in the Bedugul region of Bali.This project was
set up to train young people in the cultivation of organic strawberries.These
young farmers have received training in taking care of crops without
using pesticides and have learned how to produce their own fertilizer.Most
vegetable crops in this area can be harvested only four times a
year.After the bomb many farmers were unable to sell their produce.The
new strawberry crops are ready for picking every month, providing
the new farmers with a steady income that is not so dependant on
tourism.
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The BRF has also provided
money for eight vocational training projects. One of these projects was
a traineeship in non-toxic pest management.
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Four
young men and one young woman participated in this project, the first
of it's kind in Bali. The four month apprenticeship was developed
by Yayasan Gelombang Udara Segar (GUS). The funding from BRF enabled
GUS to develop training resources in non-toxic pest control, management
and marketing, and provision of tools and wages for the trainees.
Since completing the traineeship four of the trainees have received
support from BRF and have now set up their own pest management business.
They are also planning to start training ten more people in this type
of pest control. The fifth trainee now works as a contractor to GUS.
This project has in effect created a new industry and many new jobs. |
In addition
to the three projects highlighted above, the Bali Rehabilitation Fund
has funded many other projects in Bali and in Lombok.
The Urban Poor Micro Credit Project
Pest Management Traineeship
Small Business Training Facility
Electrical Trades Traineeships
Cincao Cuiltivation
Design and Market Media Training for Export Handicrafts Producers
Seaweed Cultivation
Beauty Salon and Women’s Vocational training Centre
Anugerah Sari Agribusiness Cooperative |
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Donna Holden is the Bali Rehabilitation Fund's Coordinator.She is
from Sydney but she has been living in Indonesia for seven years.She
is also a consultant to AusAID as Recovery
and Livelihoods Specialist for Aceh.Before coming to manage
the BRF she was Country Director for Save
the Children UK in Indonesia.She was also National HIV AIDS Policy
Adviser to the Coordinating Ministry for Poverty Alleviation and
People's Welfare (Menko Kesra) – also an AusAID project.
Some of the photographs used
on this page were taken by Jason Brown* and CV Bali Lestari**
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