Indonesia

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

• Village meeting for social preparation
• Neighborhood meetings to shape neighborhood based community saving
• Village meeting for 1st grant distribution
• Neighborhood meeting II to start loan services
• Village meeting for grant distribution III
• Neighborhood meetings to distribute loans of 2nd grant

1.4. Achievement based on Target of Activities (Output)

1. Village meeting I was held on May 19, 2007, facilitated by Akbaroedin Arif from KOMPIP and Nick Taranto from RMF. All 17 neighborhoods sent their representatives. All of the representatives were very enthusiastic to follow the program. At the end of the meeting, all neighborhood representatives signed a letter of commitment to follow the program and to succeed. During this first meeting, there was a lack of female attendance. None of the women villagers attended the meeting. It is recommended that for the neighborhood meetings there should be a focus on inviting women.
2. All of the 17 neighborhoods have held the first neighborhood meetings. The activities range from Monday, June 4 to Tuesday, June 19, 2007. The activities have involved 356 people; 213 of them male and 143 female. 40.1% of the participants were women, which is a big success.
3. Village meeting II was held on August 14, 2007, facilitated by Pargito and Lusy from KOMPIP. Village meeting II was attended by 36 villagers; 16 male and 20 female. The number of female participants has increased compared to village meeting I as at that meeting, all participants were men. As its aim, the meeting successfully distributed grants to 17 neighborhoods. Each neighborhood received 1,5 million rupiahs. KOMPIP plans to distribute the grant twice. The first grant has been distributed at village meeting II. While the second grant of Rp. 1,000,000 per neighborhood will be distributed at village meeting III.
4. Several neighborhoods started to have loan and saving activities at neighborhood meeting II.
   *Membership savings range from Rp. 5,000 to 10,000
   *Monthly savings range from Rp. 1,000 to 3.000
   *Interest ranges from 0.5 to 2% per month
   *By September 12, there are 258 male and 249 female members. Total members are 507 people.
   *There are 119 male borrowers and 126 female borrowers. Total borrowers are 245 people. Most of the borrowers use the funds to improve their economic life.
5. Village meeting III is held on Sept 12, 2007. The meeting is used to review the progress and distribute the second grant of Rp. 1,000,000 to 17 neighborhoods. The meeting is attended by Erica Karapandi, RMF’s representative in Indonesia.
6. All 17 neighborhoods in Birit completed neighborhood meeting III, where the loans of the 2nd grant were distributed. All neighborhood meetings III were completed in the time from September 14 to through October 5, 2007. The meetings were attended by 167 male and 178 female participants. The total number of members attending the neighborhood meetings was 345 people. The main purpose of the 3rd neighborhood meeting is to distribute the 2nd grant. There were 165 new borrowers who received their grant during the 3rd neighborhood meetings.
7. Borrowers by October 5, 2007 are 245 from the first grant and 165 from the second grant. Total borrowers are 410 members.

1.5. Outcome. Change initiated by KOMPIP-RMF at Birit Village during the second and third month of intervention KOMPIP-RMF has shaped 16 neighborhood community savings and strengthened one existing neighborhood community savings at Birit Village.

There was a significant change of women’s participation at the neighborhood gatherings. Female attendance at the village meetings increased from zero female participant to 20 women participating (and 16 male participants) to 19 female participants (and 17 male participants). Women now are taking on a significant role in deciding about neighborhood community savings policy.

1.6. Constraint and Learning
Our program ran from May 18, 2006 through September 17, 2007. One neighborhood couldn’t schedule a neighborhood meeting within the duration of the program. Neighborhood 17 completed its meeting on October 5, 2007. Consequences of this delay have led to the necessity for the field staff to stay longer at the location and to the delay of the report submission. The delay was also influenced by the annual Idul Fitri holiday, an Indonesian holiday of one week. This year’s Idul Fitri holiday lasted from October 13 through October 21, 2007. Not all members are always able to attend the monthly meetings. It is not easy to find a schedule that fits all members. In the future, field staff has to discuss these issues with the community so the attendance at the meetings is higher. Neighborhood 17 delayed the neighborhood community savings meeting III since the chairman used the 2nd grant for family business. Lusy approached the chairman and succeeded to distribute the 2nd grant on October 5, 2007. Continuous monitoring and mentoring is needed so that such incident may not happen after the field staff leaves the locations. We decided that in the future, funds will not be allowed to be kept by the chairman. Funds will be safe-guarded only by the treasurer.

Membership has increased positively. After neighborhood meeting III 51 new members registered. Now there are 507 plus 51 members in Birit Village. By neighborhood meeting III, the number of members had increased 10.059%. Birit is famously known as ’difficult communities’. The trend of membership shows that the community savings system works in a ’difficult village’.

Birit was chosen as program area for different reasons than Mlese Village (RMF-KOMPIP’s early program area). If Mlese had been chosen because of the cooperativeness of the community, Birit had been chosen for the opposite reason. Nick for sure remembers that the Village Head did not attend village meeting I. Pargito and Lusy witnessed that he neither attended village meeting II. But Erica could witness that he did attended village meeting III. This trend also shows that Birit as ’difficult community’ has gradually increased their positive responses to RMF-KOMPIP’s program.

There are only 9 borrowers who have not returned the installment. Most of them did not attend neighborhood meeting III so that the reason why they did not pay back is not yet clear. If compared to the total number of borrowers, there are only 2.19% who failed to return the installment on time. They failed to pay on time, but have not yet proven if they cannot or will not pay the installment. Debt collectors in each neighborhood will work to approach those who failed to pay the installment. However, this finding strengthens our belief of the need of continuous monitoring after the field staff leaves Birit.