Mercy Corps Indonesia

Kiandi (in blue shirt), in experiences sharing session with trainers from other villages.As Kiandi, a coffee farmer in Kala Bintang, Aceh Tengah, went out of his house every morning, the warm greetings from his neighbors always brightened his day. They invited him to drop by at their house for a minute to chat and to hear his recommendation on how to solve their financial problems over a cup of coffee and snacks.

This man was one of a few selected people attending the training for trainers on financial management for household from Mercy Corps’ (MC) Our World Our Family (OWOF) program which was funded by Western Union Foundation that gives economical development support to its other existing programs. In Aceh Tengah, the training was done in July 2011, as MC inter – program collaboration between OWOF and Community Health and Investment for Livelihoods Initiative (CHILI) program, funded by Green Mountain Coffee Roaster.

Many stories from The children can go to school easily crossing a bridge built by Mercy Corps and USAID.tsunami survivors from the late October 2010 tsunami in the Mentawai Islands can be so heartbreaking, that you will shed many tears.  Other stories will amaze you because of individual’s ability to survive the brunt of water that came from the ocean floor.Masokut sub-village in South Sipora was directly affected by the strong tsunami that came last year.  The 69 families (around 345 people) are living in their new homes about 1 km away from their old homes that were destroyed by the waves.

In 2006 Mercy Corps was leading an IDRC-supported project to improve water, sanitation, and solid waste services in Jakarta through economic incentives. The project – known as ‘Healthy Places, Prosperous People’ or HP3 – is part of IDRC’s Focus City initiative, whereby multi-stakeholder city teams research and test innovative solutions to  alleviate poverty.

HP3 is focusing its efforts in Penjaringan, a large neighbourhood near the harbour of North Jakarta  District. The HP3 project team, led by Mercy Corps, also includes collaboration with three other organizations. The Urban and Regional Development Institute is a local NGO with expertise in urban planning issues,  policy development and advocacy, and knowledge of Jakarta’s municipal government. The USAID Environmental Services Program has expertise in community-based environmental infrastructure and service provision. Their staff advises on research and implementation for HP3, drawing on lessons from their work on infrastructure models being tested in other parts of Indonesia. The Swiss NGO Swisscontact has strong linkages with the Jakarta government and private sector, and is helping HP3 develop engagement strategies, as well as advising on business development, income generation, and economic analysis.

The operator starts the machine from Coconut Grating machine provided by the Gates Foundation to grates coconuts.”Ke neneget ta ma susah ma sigelai tula kui (Now (grating coconut) is no longer hard to do)” - Those were the delighted words that came from people in Gobik, South Sipora.

Thanks to the GATES Foundation and Mercy Corps, Gobi received help rebuilding their coconut oil production (livelihood).  Before the tsunami, the women in Gobi produced coconut oil in the traditional way; grating the coconut by hand. Squeezing the grated meat made the women’s hands “sore and tired”, said Basalina (35).