Recent Reports

Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF) Neighborhood 01 sub Village Birit Lor, Village Birit

One of the Real Medicine Foundation’s sponsored Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF) villages is Birit Lor. Founded on July 15th 2008, the aim of the NEF is to stimulate economic recovery in the wake of an earthquake that wracked Klaten City and surrounding areas in June 2006. In this neighborhood, all members are women. Each member pays an initial membership fee of Rp.5000 ($US .50) and a monthly fee of $US ten cents. Officers in this NEF are: Mrs. Tatik as chairwoman, Mrs Budi as vice chairwoman,…

Nice to meet you, I am called Grandmother Harto. I am a 65 year old widow. I live in RT 03 Rw 02 Birit, Wedi, Klaten. In my RT are many still who cannot yet rebuild their houses. I have 5 children—3 daughters and 2 sons. My daughters–Jumilah lives in Nglegrengan, Gantiwarno, Suparmi in Brangkal. Wedi and one more named Lestari live in Karbolo, Bayat. My two sons—one, Sugeng lives in Sembung and the other, Kuat, lives close by me. On May 27th, 2006, the day of the Great Earthquake, my house and the house of…

Name: Mrs. Marsiyem (37 years old) Occupation: Bread seller Association: RT 08 RW 04

After tasting life in Jakarta as a factory laborer, Mrs. Marsiyem (Association RT 08 Birit Village) returned to her childhood neighborhood looking to fulfill her basic needs in a simpler way. After experiencing many years in the capital city, Mrs. Marsiyem wanted to come home. She decided to become a food seller in Birit Village, and she chose to sell bread.Mrs. Marsiyem has been in business for nearly ten months, although her food stand was already established. With a starting capital of 200.000…

Name: Mrs. Sudarmi (37 years old) Occupation: Traveling bakso (meatball) seller Association: RT 04 RW 03

Selling bakso ojek (baked meatballs) may not provide a very large income, yet Mrs. Sudarmi chooses to sell bakso ojek in order to help her husband provide for her family’s basic necessities. They are both citizens of RT 04 and have also become part of the committee in the local community savings group, though they joined after they had already begun selling bakso ojek. Because they want to have more children, they anticipate that their family costs will continue to increase.…

Name : Mrs. Suparni (30 years old) Occupation : Kindergarten teacher and sundries store owner Association: RT 01 RW 01 BIRIT Village

Mrs. Suparni dreams of one day owning a daycare, but since she is already 40 years old she thinks that God may have a different plan for her. Though her prayers for a daycare have not been answered, she is able to play with young children every day as a kindergarten teacher. In addition to staying busy with children, Mrs Suparni has run a small sundries shop since 2005. In the mornings she still teaches…

Name : Mrs. Darto (75 years old) Occupation : Kerupuk (chip) seller Association: RT 01 RW 01 BIRIT VILLAGE

Mrs. Darto may be 75 years old, but that does not lessen her spirit! Mrs. Darto lives alone so she likes to work to occupy her time. She has used the same old bicycle for more than ten years to sell her kerupuk (chips made of flour and flavored with fish or shrimp, served alongside or on top of many Indonesian dishes).She buys kerupuk from a big seller in for 40.000,00 rupiah. Every day she brings two sacks…

Name : Mr. Sukemi (44 years old) Occupation : Selling gravestones, engravings, and stone materials Association: RT 02 RW 01 BIRIT Village

Mr. Sukemi’s family business is selling kijing (gravestones), engravings, and raw stone material. The three segments of his business are interdependent. Mr. Sukemi’s wife, Mrs. Novi, helps him with his business, especially with bookkeeping as she has experience in accounting. Mrs. Novi is also an officer in the community savings group RT 02. The gravestone business that Mrs. Novi and Mr. Sukemi run was actually founded by Mr. Sukemi’s father. Mr. Sukemi manages the family…

Name : Mrs. Suparti (30 years old) Occupation : goat sate seller Association : RT 02 RW 01 BIRIT Village

The fragrant and appetizing aroma of specially prepared goat meat always surrounds a warung (small restaurant) located barely a hundred meters across the street from the Birit Village office. Wife and husband Mrs. Suparti and Mr. Pardi are both members of RT 02 and owners of this goat meat warung, which already has many loyal customers. Although uncooked meat is not on display in front of their warung, the delicious aroma of cooking meat attracts anyone fond…

Resource Grant: Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) Institution: KOMPIP Duration of the program : 4 months – May 18, 2007 to September 17, 2007 Geographic area: Birit Village, Wedi District, Central Java Report submission: October 22, 2007

1.1. Purpose Disaster Mitigation through Community Saving in Earthquake Area, Birit Village, District Wedi, Central Java Province.

1.2. Target of the second and third month Grant distribution. Start of loan and saving activities at neighborhoods.

1.3. Activity

I. Contextual Background

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the richter scale hit Jogja and Central Java province in the early morning on May 27, 2006. The Local Government Disaster Mitigation Office in Satkorak Klaten reported that 1,045 victims died, 18,127 victims were injured, 98,552 houses were partially damaged, 62,979 houses were severly damaged and 29,988 houses were completely destructed. Satkorlak reported that the earthquake devastated public infrustructure as well as individual homes — 439 public buildings were partially damaged, 430 public buildings were severely damaged, and 76 public buildings were completely destructed. The earthquake impacted more than…

A magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. on May 27 near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, 250 miles east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. The massive earthquake has so far killed almost 5,700 people, seriously wounded more than 20,000 and left 200,000 homeless. Many of the homeless people remained near their damaged residences in makeshift shelters. Since the quake struck, there have been several hundred aftershocks. The earthquake's epicenter was close to the rumbling Mount Merapi volcano, and activity increased soon after the temblor.

You can help by donating here and specifying "Indonesia Earthquake Relief" in…

collected by KOMPIP

“Thanks God, everything is going very very well!” Says Mr. Paryono, secretary of the Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF) from sub-village Pulorejo, village Mlese, at the heart of the earthquake area in Klaten, Central Java. The NEF in Mr. Paryono’s neighborhood was founded on 23 January 2007, supported by the Real Medicine Foundation.

According to Mr. Paryono, there were 28 members and 5 officers when the NEF was founded. The 5 officers took roles as chairman, secretary, treasurer, and two community liaisons. Until now, there is no officer rotation. Membership is based on households –…

The community savings program is the beginning of a much more long-term, and what I think is a positively exciting, approach to bringing people out of poverty.

This past October, the Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) issued a US$10,800 grant to Yayasan KOMPIP (YK) to expand YK's TRT or "community savings" project in Mlese Village, Central Java. Since dispersal, the grant has already directly impacted over 1,000 individuals. The RMF grant has stimulated a multiyear process of economic growth that will actively fight poverty and redevelop the community, damaged in a May 2006 earthquake. In Mlese…

…The Real Medicine Foundation came with the main plan of microfinance to help small businesses, either by funding the villager for a food stall, a bicycle or a sewing machine. Microfinance is a concept that had recently caught a fair amount of press due to the latest Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus being a micro-financier himself. It is not just giving fish but giving the equipment to fish. It is a method of aid that is practical, long-lasting and its effects, multiplying.

Within minutes of discussion, we realized that the government aid for shelter had been…

Two staff members have been hired and have already been on-site for three weeks. Nine out of nineteen RTs (neighborhoods) have had their first of three training sessions, and the other ten RTs are scheduled in the near future. One of three village wide meetings has already taken place, and, as previously reported by Akbar, it was a great success. The women particularly are very interested and involved in the project.

Here are some of the rules and regulations that have been decided…

In the last two days, we have completed the first village meeting attended by all neighborhood heads at Mlese Village (Monday 16 Oct 2006, 15.00 pm to 17.45 pm). 47 participants from the village and 7 KOMPIP staff members including the field staffs attended the meeting. Target of the first meeting was program orientation and agreement of the villagers to follow the program. Facilitated by myself, the meeting went very smoothly and indicated that all neighborhood heads and staffs were enthusiastic to wanting to being part of and follow the program.…

After spending time with employees of Yayasan KOMPIP (YK) visiting past and potential project sites in Solo and Klaten Cities, it is my recommendation that Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) devote resources to expand YK’s Tabungan Rukun Tetangga (TRT) program to Mlese Village. A US$12,066 grant to KOMPIP to be used on the behalf of Mlese Village will directly impact an estimated 1,000 households or over 3,500 individuals. Judging from YK’s past successes with the TRT program, the RMF grant will stimulate a multiyear process of economic growth that will actively fight poverty and redevelop the damaged community. The RMF…

A magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. on May 27 near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, 250 miles east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. The massive earthquake has so far killed almost 5,700 people, seriously wounded more than 20,000 and left 200,000 homeless. Many of the homeless people remained near their damaged residences in makeshift shelters. Since the quake struck, there have been several hundred aftershocks. The earthquake's epicenter was close to the rumbling Mount Merapi volcano, and activity increased soon after the temblor.

Thousands of the survivors are in urgent need of medical assistance.…

Thousands of the survivors are in urgent need of medical assistance. Many areas are still struggling to see aid deliveries, and hospitals in the region have been overwhelmed by the injured as the death toll keeps climbing and hopes of finding more survivors fades. In the hardest-hit district of Bantul, rescuers tried to pull bodies from the rubble as residents started digging mass graves. A local official reports that 600,000 of the 800,000 people in the district needed assistance. Medical teams are struggling to care for the injured, hundreds of who are lying on plastic sheets,…

Now four years into RMF’s partnership with KOMPIP, RMF is taking a step back to reflect on the successes of our joint Neighborhood Endowment Fund Program thus far.

This community-owned revolving fund initiative provides its members with access to small loans for micro-enterprise purposes. Each neighborhood has its own fund and democratically elects three to four people to administer the fund voluntarily, acting in the capacities of leader, treasurer and secretary. The neighborhood structure that is already in existence is the pillar of the program. In Indonesia this structure is known as the “RT-RW” system of socio-geographic organization.…

Mr Subhash Jindal, Vice-President of BASIX, visited us in Surakarta, Central Java to carry out an assessment of current operations and current capacity. Our objective was to develop a framework for proposals aimed at attaining funds for the BASIX Technical Assistance and implementation of a comprehensive and institutional microfinance model.After presenting an overview of our microfinance projects at KOMPIP’s office we went to visit the first ever Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF) community in Sorowaden. Here, KOMPIP demonstrated its strong relationships and communication mechanisms with the impoverished communities; all attendees registered as members of the cooperative.

Overview of Micro-Business in Indonesia

There are 51 million businesses in Indonesia, most of which do not have access to formal banking. A breakdown of the industry is shown below:

Our partner organization KOMPIP (discussed below) has and will continue to service the productive poor segment.

An overview of loans and savings in Indonesia’s financial system is provided in the table below. Legal structures for microfinance initiatives in Indonesia vary and include banks, non-bank financial institutions (NBFI), non-profit foundations, and cooperatives.

While the above data…

Key Take-Aways:

• RMF-KOMPIP developed a bottom-up model to enhance family income.• More than 6,000 members spread across 190 neighborhoods. • Since 2007 KOMPIP has distributed US$32,900. After two years, the fund has grown to US$52,452.• We are excited by funding commitments from the local government and the opportunity to achieve large gains in the fight against Indonesian poverty.

Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF)

Supported by the Real Medicine Foundation since 2006, KOMPIP has developed a bottom-up model to generate and enhance family income. What we translate as “the neighborhood” is in fact a unique Indonesian grass…

“The most important principle is that the fund is always working for and supporting the poor.” — Akbar Oedin Arif, CEO KOMPIP

KOMPIP has arrived at a juncture in its development of the Community Savings Model. Pilot programs run over the past five years through KOMPIP’s field laboratory have proven that Community Savings funds are not only feasible, but that they produce returns of over 100% per annum in the most successful cases. While Akbar and I were initially entertaining the idea of taking the model for-profit – as has been done successfully in Mexico with Compartamos –…

KOMPIP is developing a new model of Community Savings called the Neighborhood Endowment Fund (NEF). The development of this new fund goes along with the effort to realize the third fiscal devolution.

The first fiscal devolution happens when the central government delivers publicly budgeted finance and a certain degree of authority to the regency level. The second fiscal devolution happens when regency governments deliver comparable budgeting from the regency to the city. The third fiscal devolution is KOMPIP’s proposed next evolution in public finance. The third fiscal devolution happens when cities and villages deliver budgetary discretion to the…

Ibu Sami and the remains of her porch

Ibu Sami is a young woman who survived the Indonesian earthquake of May 2006, but had her leg badly injured. She and her family had lost everything in the disaster and she did not have the funds to have the necessary surgery. So she continued to work (she weaves fabric for a living, using her legs to operate the loom), and was in constant pain. RMF’s Dr. Kevin Thomas and Jenni Myers visited our projects in Indonesia in November 2006, and they immediately decided…