PEKKA Education and Community Development Fund: NTT, Indonesia
PEKKA is a women’s empowerment organisation based in Indonesia with a membership of over 25,000 women ‘heads of household’, including rural widows, abandoned and divorced women across Indonesia. PEKKA has led campaigns and programs aimed at education, health, access to justice, livelihood and women’s leadership in the community. indigo partners with a thriving network PEKKA Lodan Doe collectives spread across the islands of Adonara, Lembata and East Flores in Eastern Indonesia
PEKKA members – women heads of household – are one of the most marginalised groups in Indonesia with almost half (49%) of PEKKA households represented in the poorest 20% of Indonesian society with an income close to the Indonesian poverty line.
In 2017, indigo foundation launched a partnership with the PEKKA Lodan Doe. This partnership focuses on food security through a network of women-run coooperative gardens and on improving education outcomes with a bursary program for girls and young women from primary to university and support for young women who have dropped out of school to return to sit their school certificate.
In 2019, PEKKA Lodan Doe held their inaugural Children’s Festival, providing an opportunity for children and young people from female headed households and the broader community to come together to learn about local traditions in cooking, dance, music and weaving and to promote pride and knowledge of the local culture. You can read about the first festival here.
For more information on PEKKA’s work in Indonesia, see their website and this article by feminst powerhouse and PEKKA National Coordinator Ibu Nani Zulminarni.