The Biggest loan so far!

Ina Nisa selling her vegetables at Baturiti Kadus House

This month one of the members of the Baturiti Savings and Loans groups took a 2,500,000Rp loan to invest in her business. Ina Nisa travels to the Sangkol market, 20-30 minutes bus ride, to buy fresh vegetables and then sell them door to door in the Kuta area.

This loan was to be invested in her travel expenses so she could increase the number of times she goes to the market and therefore slowly expand her business. For perspective, the minimum wage per month in NTB province in 2011 was of 950,000Rp, while the average monthly salary was of 1,347,119Rp (Source: Indonesia BPS Statistics). This means that Ina Nisa has managed to obtain a loan that is almost 2 times the average monthly salary of an employee in the NTB province.

This has been possible thanks to the KAF commnunity savings and loans methodology that we started 10 months ago in the area, which enables women to help each other  with small loans, without the need to depend on external funds.

Group Event in Kuta Beach

Last Saturday July the 14^th we had the second Bersahara women gathering in Kuta Beach. As new groups join we wanted to make sure that they get to know other groups, exchange experiences and have fun together.

Again we had some time to reflect about the good things about being a woman and also about the most difficult things that women face. As we found out last time, women in the groups find child bearing and family caring as the best thing of being women. Generally, the biggest difficulties are related to the burden of having to do all the household work alone and having to deal with angry husbands. 

According to the National Population Census by BPS Indonesia, Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) province has one of the lowest sex ratio in Indonesia, at 94% vs. 101 for total Indonesia, which means there are more women than men. With 1,252,000 Households, at an average size of 3.6members/household, the province has the lowest literacy rate of all Indonesia (after Papua) for both men and women, at 86% and 77% respectively (vs. 95% and 90% for national average). On average, men will attend school an average of 7 years, while for girls the average drops to 6 years. This, together with the low GDP/capita explains that the province holds the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in the country, at 65,2% vs 72,7% national average.

Despite their difficult situation we find these women incredibly patient, hard working and willing to learn and improve every day.

We hope that our efforts to educate women and support them in generating an income will slowly contribute to the improvement of human development of the area, and particularly in the empowerment of these women so they are able to choose their own future.

One more group!

A few kilometres out of Kuta, up in the mountains and through a remote and dense bamboo and coconut forest is the small village of Bunlesung, home to the 11 women who have started the 6th savings and loans group in Kuta Lombok area.

Bunlesung is surrounded by thick wild vegetation mainly of coconut trees. There is no electricity supply or running water. The women in the villages have to walk to the only well in the village every day to fetch the water for cooking, cleaning and bathing. The luckiest families who have a little “pool” (as they call it) can buy the water from the nearest town with a natural spring water and have it delivered regularly by a truck. The road to this village is a dirt track full of stones and potholes, we can only imagine how this road will look like in the rainy season.

The road to Bunlesung

Families live of the land and farming cows. The women have learnt how to make Virgin coconut oil with rain water and are very creative with every day needs since the nearest shop is 20 min. away by motorbike.

We are received at Arian’s house (known as Ina Opa in the village, leader of the group), who offers us some home made snacks and young coconuts fresh from the trees and sipped through a natural papaya stem straw!

Arian's house in Bunlesung

Arianne and Arian

Arian has been trained by Arianne so that she can train the women in the nearby villages how to start their own savings and loans groups. 

We hope the group can start helping  each other through the savings and loans, and we are already thinking of ways we can help them sell their coconut oil or help them generate additional income!

Thanks to Babette and Kirsten who helped us with the new group

Welcome Bunlesung women!

Our first Volunteer!

Babette looking at ikats weaving

Babette, a half Spanish and half French woman, landed last week in the new international airport of Lombok. She has come to volunteer with Bersahara for 3 months. Babette is an experienced business woman who has travelled the world supporting women in different countries (like India, Iran, Myanmar and Mali), teaching them how to design fashion items using local fabrics and techniques.

Babette shopping in Mataram

Shopping for Ikats in Sukarara traditional village

Babette will be working with some of the groups teaching them how to make bags, sarongs and other items out of the beautiful and traditional Ikats and Songkets fabrics.

She has only been with us for a little more than a week and she can already speak a little Bahasa Indonesia! We are very happy to have her with us and believe that her contribution will be of great help for the women in Kuta Lombok.

Facing Life

Ina Yuyun is 25 years old, she has a seven year old daughter and has been married since she was 17. She is from Sade, a traditional Sasak village in Southern Lombok known for their weaving. As many other young teenagers from Sade, Ina Yuyun started coming to Kuta very young to sell the sarongs that her family would weave. This is how she learnt her English and developed her skills as a seller, which you would never imagine as she is a quite and apparently shy person. Here in Kuta she met her husband and got married.

8  months ago she started a new business: door to door clothes selling. She enjoys selling but was tired of working for tourists so she decided to target the local people. She now buys clothes in the wholesaler shops in Mataram city and sells them in the different villages around Kuta. She asked us for advice on how to improve her business. We started supervising her income and expenses figures, to help her understand it better, and realised that she was making more income than her husband, who worked for a Hotel.

Women from Sade selling sarongs in Kuta Beach

3 months ago the police came to her house and registered every corner, finding what they were looking for. Apparently her husband had got involved in some kind of drug dealing and is now awaiting sentencing for the time in prison.  So Ina Yuyun has been left alone to take care of the house and their girl. One week ago she took a 1.450.000Rp loan from the group. She said it was for her business. Today we found out that she has bought some bamboo and wood to build a little stall in the local market. She has decided to start selling in the market, as well as door to door, and is busy getting all ready before Ramadan starts: the perfect timing when every Muslim spends more money in presents for others.

Ina Yuyun as "accountant responsible" for the Savings and loans group

Again, we are proud of Ina Yuyun’s  strength and courage and wish her all the best with her new extended business.