Rote is a small island located southwest of West Timor. Since July 2000, IF has been working with the communities of Delha, which is in the western most province of Rote. Delha consists of four main villages (plus a number of sub villages) and has a population of approximately 2,800. Owing to its remote location, Delha receives little government (or non government) development assistance and lacks basic services such as water supply and electricity.

1. Capacity development - Lua Lemba Education & Community Development Foundation

IF support is primarily channeled through ‘Lua Lemba Education and Community Development Foundation’, a local not-for-profit organisation based in Delha! Our support includes extensive capacity development, focusing on strategic planning and budgeting, along with community driven prioritization and implementation of activities. This support, which includes core funding of $5,000 per year, has, over the years, helped in: the establishment of two senior high schools; the provision of education bursaries for children from kindergarten through to senior high school; enabled health & hygiene workshops to be conducted, the development of a Healthy Schools Program; provision of computer classes; the building of an office for Lua Lemba, (including the establishment of a reading room),  facilitating the acquisition of birth and marriage certificates (see below).

Lua Lemba’s development has not been without its challenges however, as the small organisation struggled with a high workload in response to community needs and outsider (IF) support; rapid changes in the social and economic environment (such as the transition to a cash economy which resulted in a large reduction in the volunteer capacity and interest of the community); changes in local government administration and resources; increased land control by foreigners; and (relatively) new development concepts such as community ownership and decision-making transparency. These created organisational challenges for Lua Lemba, some of which have been difficult to negotiate.

Supporting a local 'not-for-profit' organisation through such difficulties and, importantly, working to build capacity to manage them, is central to IF’s mandate. To provide this support, Project Manager, Libby House visited Rote three times during 2005-06 (one trip was self funded). These visits were not always easy. Sensitive and complex issues had to be discussed and reflected upon. However, the last trip of 2006 witnessed a watershed. IF led an extensive community consultation and community based planning and prioritization process. This was undertaken using open workshops in each village, with the key objective being to evaluate Lua Lemba’s work to date and to empower the community to contribute to future activities. An additional aim was to provide Lua Lemba with a planning tool and a mechanism for ongoing self-evaluation and problem solving. The workshops not only allowed IF to model our Guiding Principles (transparency, sustainability, community ownership and equity), but also validated Lua Lemba’s work over the last five years.

During that trip, Lua Lemba received an overall approval rating from the community of almost 80%, and had acknowledged and/or was addressing nine of the top twelve development priorities identified by the community. These included: support for local handicrafts; development of an equitable savings and loans project; recruiting a native speaking English teacher for the Senior High School, provision of a photocopier for dissemination of information, provision of computer classes and health education programmes, establishment of a reading room, and facilitation of birth and marriage certificates.

What also became evident during that visit was that, viewed from an overarching strategic perspective, Lua Lemba’s activities were clearly aimed at building capacity and assisting the local population to recognise, manage and maximise changes taking place within their community. Even during difficult times, Lua Lemba had proven to be an asset to the population of Delha with a solid and forward thinking leadership. Even so, changes have been needed within Lua Lemba to allow it to be more representative and transparent. Subsequently, Lua Lemba was restructured to increase community involvement in decision-making through decentralisation (for example, village activity managers have now been recruited for the five constituent villages) as well as improved transparency.

Whereas we normally seek to visit a project once a year, it was Lua Lemba’s need for support during difficult times that sent Libby off again to Rote in February 2007, just six months after her previous visit in July 2006. Given the challenges Lua Lemba faced, it was vital that an IF representative went to ensure that improvements to program management, which were agreed on during Libby’s last visits, had taken place and to assist, where possible, the consolidation of these changes.  Equally important was the need for IF to demonstrate to the Delha community our moral support to, and our faith in, Lua Lemba.

Libby’s 2007 trip was an extremely positive one. The agreed changes were being implemented and the community unanimously indicated they wanted the community consultation process to take place on a yearly basis. Libby found the accounts, which formerly were unfinished and messy, to be complete and accurate. Libby took the opportunity to help strengthen Lua Lemba’s capacity in planning, prioritizing and budgeting. Overall, the community was very optimistic about the future of Lua Lemba.

Lua Lemba has requested planning and consultation workshops to be part of future monitoring and evaluation visits. We believe our support to Lua Lemba represents a true community development project - we are involved in assisting a community to define itself and to help it shape its future.

2. Community projects

IF has provided support to other activities, beyond strengthening the organisational capacity of Lua Lemba. These have been remarkably successful, and include:

Birth and marriage certificates program. Many women and children suffer economic disadvantage due to a lack of legal marital status, a relatively costly process. By facilitating the issuing of marriage and birth certificates - often unaffordable in poor families - Lua Lemba is helping marginalised women and their children to gain access to a variety of government services and benefits, as well as basic rights such as the right to inherit and own land. 243 birth certificates were provided with the last installment of funding.

Educational bursaries are a core function of Lua Lemba’s work in the community. It was decided in 2007 that bursaries be provided for the duration of a recipient’s enrolment, thus giving security to both students and their families.  Bursaries were subsequently provided to 42 students from all schools in the Delha region, with the financial balance weighted to the high school students, as there is very little Government funding available to students at this level.

The Healthy Schools Program (using World Health Organisation guidelines) was initiated by Lua Lemba and IF. The program uses a health promotion approach to introduce information to and create behaviour change in students. It uses the school as a medium to distribute information, advocate changes and provide positive role modelling. In early 2007, the focus was on dental health, with two highlights being a seminar on dental health at the Senior High School and a drawing competition held in the primary schools. Winners, as judged by the Health Centre Doctor, were awarded a cash prize.

Sexual health workshops for men and women were identified as a priority by the community in the community consultations held during Libby’s visits. In recent years the Delha community has grown increasingly concerned about the risk to their young people of HIV/AIDS. Indonesia now has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia. However, there is still little in the way of accurate information or support available in the community.

As a result, an IF member, Ian Seal (Manager, Community Capacity Building, Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne) and Lea Trafford (Project Officer and Trainer also from the Royal Children’s Hospital) volunteered their time to work with Lua Lemba in July-August 2007, to educate the Delha community on reproductive health education and develop a health curriculum for schools. Lea was already known and well regarded in Rote through health workshops she had previously conducted. Libby, and a dynamic group of IF and Rote supporters in Melbourne, raised funds for these workshops, enabling Ian to travel to Rote. Lucy Bire, a nurse educator, and her husband Immy (who are part of the broadening IF/Rote network) were, fortuitously, also in Rote when Ian was there. Lucy and Immy generously volunteered their time and expertise to the workshops.

Six workshops were held across the three high schools in the area and four workshops in youth groups attached to the village churches. Each workshop was different as the team negotiated with school teachers and principals about what information was appropriate, taking into account the age of the young people involved and the technology and resources that were accessible. In three of the school workshops students made posters, applying what they had just learned to design appropriate messages for their peers. A key element of every workshop was to collect written questions that participants had. These questions and subsequent answers were compiled and made into a booklet. The team left copies of this booklet with each school and church.

Workshops, while central to HIV prevention, are of course only a part of what is needed for a comprehensive response to HIV and other sexual health risks. For this reason the team spoke to Lua Lemba health workers across Delha, and to Tanpa Batas, an HIV-prevention organisation working in Kupang, West Timor, about broader awareness raising programs, access to testing and treatment facilities, and opportunities to build further partnerships between Lua Lemba and other Not-for-Profit organisations. Developing this work will be a key part of Ian’s next trip to Rote in 2008 in which it is hoped the development of a comprehensive health curriculum in schools will begin.

Maternal and child health workshops that were conducted by Lucy Bire in each of the churches during her visit in 2007 were very popular and well-received. 250 people attended the final of the five workshops, demonstrating the demand for quality information on child and maternal health. Discussion amongst participants highlighted ways in which poverty and gender inequities conspire to reduce health for both women and children. Some babies are being weaned as early as one-month old so that their mothers can return to work seaweed farming, and they may have no access to healthy breast-milk substitutes. We will be building on these workshops in 2008 when Lucy and Immy return to Rote to build on the very important work they began.

Agriculture/Permaculture - A steadily growing project, initially identified by Lua Lemba, is the organic market gardening project in M’bore Village - the Oehela Farmer’s Group. This group has proven to be incredibly resourceful, committed and successful in developing their agricultural and community resources. M’bore is a small village located in Delha. It has a large lake, and the community has been keen to utilise its potential.

Since 2002, IF has provided technical and community development support and has also funded a pump and irrigation hoses. IF member, Alberto Vela, who is water engineer, has visited M’bore twice. In October 2006, IF supported workshops that were held over two days by a World Vision Permaculture Group from Ba’a. The workshops comprised compost making and classes in growing vegetable varieties that are new to the Group. These workshops were very well received.

The workshops, accompanied by simple technology and better water sourcing, have resulted in a dramatic increase in the production of onions (a mainstay crop on the island) and other vegetables. For example, in 2005, two tonnes of compost was made and used to improve 300 garden beds. These beds produced thirteen tonnes of onions and garlic, eight of which were sold with the remainder kept for seed. In 2007. each bed produced 50kg of onions. The remaining beds were used to grow snake beans, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, spinach and cucumbers. Production of vegetables overall increased by about 30% and there was enough of these new varieties to feed the village with some left over to sell to neighbouring villages.

Vegetable sellers from M’bore now travel the Delha region selling their vegetables door-to-door rather than waiting for market days, resulting in increased fresh vegetable consumption across the villages. A secondary outcome is the establishment of a community bank where each family contributes a small amount of money from garden income. This is then given to one family in the village on a rotation system. Five private toilets have been installed in the village using this fund. (The community decided against public toilets due to issues of maintenance and cleanliness).

Water - An overarching priority that has been consistently identified in each village is the provision of a reliable water system. In Nemberala, water remains the most challenging yet politically difficult sector. The last installation of a water system failed quickly. Reasons include: local politics; lack of leadership and responsible management; limited resources; lack of community ownership (minimum consultation); development agencies looking for a ‘quick fix’ which resulted in poor planning and the (poor) installation of cheap, inappropriate equipment; stolen fittings; and high mineral content of water degrading the metal pipes. Nemberala now has a new village chief and there is potential for stronger and more responsible leaderships in this area.

That there is only one functioning well in Nemberala (for a population of 1,000) and some villagers have to walk 3-5 km for fresh water is deeply disturbing to IF. To date, this problem has been too large for Lua Lemba and IF to tackle.  We are now working with Lua Lemba to find a solution, as jointly we feel we have the political legitimacy and resources to do so. This year we are committed to identifying a third not-for-profit organisation that we can work with to provide technical assistance and resources. Since the scale of this endeavour represents another full project, IF volunteer, Rachel Kelly, has volunteered to work on behalf of IF to take this forward.

Development of a reading room / library in the Lua Lemba office provides books for both children and adults.  There has been some initial borrowing, and the community is being strongly encouraged to make more use of this new resource.

Besialu Handicrafts Group and Bakery – Another Lua Lemba priority is maintaining the Rotinese weaving tradition. In particular, they are supporting the local women’s weaving group ‘Besialu’ (initially established with Libby’s support in 1998). IF’s support has resulted in the reinvigoration of Besialu by helping the women identify and implement fundraising strategies. IF also supported the attendance of key women at a weaving conference, which was organised by ‘Threads of Life’ in West Timor. These weavers met other women from many parts of Indonesia who are involved in maintaining weaving traditions and establishing markets for these cloths. A representative of Threads of Life visited Delha in September with a view to establishing links with Besialu. IF has received a request for technical support for the development and publishing of a book about weaving histories, traditions and processes. To date, Johanna Barrkman, Director, Northern Territory Museum, has indicated strong interest and possible support for the set up, layout and photography for such a book. 

M'bore Water Project (82 kb)

If you would like more information please contact Elizabeth House c/- indigo.foundation@bigpond.com