When Solidarity Tested

Tuesday  9 July 2013 the saving and loan meeting was held at a Brugak ( gazebo ) in Aik Lengis Kuta Village Lombok. The meeting led by Inaq Sukur , the group leader who is responsible for the book keeping as well. From 26 members there are few members who are literate and book keeping tasks are the most avoided task by members because the book keeper is not only responsible on recording all transactions but also responsible on handling money during saving and loan meeting. And since the group established 15 months ago Inaq Sukur and Lilik have been in charge  of book keeping.

As usual the members bought shares and repay the loan. Inaq Sukur assisted by Lilik recorded all the transactions. Once completed, she calculated the money to match the money received in accordance with the amount recorded on the book. She found there was difference of Rp 100,000 (USD 10).She lost Rp 100,000 which is equivalent to daily wage for 2.5 days or 10 unit shares for 10 months because members of Aik Lengis group usually buy 1 unit share every month.

The panic started to happen. All members start looked for that money and our field officer calculated if there was an error in recording but there was no error at all , the transactions recorded correctly. What did they have to do to solve this problem?

Not long after, one of member suggested that all members are responsible for the loss of that money. So each member has to pay Rp 4,000 to replace the missing money. The other suggested using money from the petty cash and the shortage paid by each member (usually a member who didn’t attend group meeting has to pay fine and it collected in the box to be used to buy stationery and emergency fund). Finally after deducting money from petty cash each member only pay Rp 2,500 to settle the missing money.

Solidarity of group from Aik Lengis Kuta has been tested through this case. Monthly meeting since 15 months ago not only a place for saving and borrowing money which benefit them financially, but also a media for sharing ,building  sense of belonging and solidarity. 

The group from Aik Lengis Kuta Village

We proud of the value shown by women from Aik Lengis, and their commitment to support each other.