By: Marita Driessen

The village of Cisarua in West Java (Indonesia)

Working together for a brighter future

Wati has no husband, but does have 3 children to take care of. Every day she leaves at sunrise to pick tea leaves and returns home around three. She earns just enough to buy some rice and salted fish. She cannot afford to buy new clothes for her children, let alone pay for their school fees. She takes out more and more loans and sees no way out. Dedeh has a baby with health problems, but the hospital is too far away and the small local clinic cannot help. The baby’s problems may have been caused by severely polluted water…

Wati and Dedeh  live in West-Java in the village of Cisarua, where one third of the women are the main earners of their household. For the last 10 years Stichting Java Village has supported these vulnerable women and their children helping them to break the circle of poverty and to build a brighter future for themselves.

We are a small scale organization and base our help on the priorities and needs of the people of Cisarua. An important condition for our help is that it stimulates independence and cooperation. Once a month, our field worker in Indonesia visits all the projects. We work together with local experts and companies. Because we solely work with volunteers, our help benefits the people directly. Our foundation focuses on:

Help a Child to school with the Java Village Foundation

• Youth and education;
• Micro-credits for women;
• Health and environment

Youth and education

In Cisarua only 50% of the children continue their education at the secondary school in a nearby village. Most families cannot afford the daily costs of school lunches and the bus ride to the school.

For € 10 ($ 13,33) each month you can sponsor a child to attend secondary school for 3 years. This way we enable the poorest students to continue their education.  Furthermore we have helped building classrooms for the local primary school, and we set up lessons in English and computer science. Early school leavers can also join these classes.

Micro-credits for women

Together with the regional women’s organization PPSW we help some of the most vulnerable women to organize themselves and to work towards more economic independence. They learn to save and budget, how to turn ideas into action and how to start a small business with the help of our micro-credits. Fieldworkers guide them in this process.

Health and environment

Far too many (often extremely young) mothers and newborn babies die. Together with local midwives we have started health posts (posyandu) in every neighbourhood, where we provide information on health and pregnant women and mothers with babies can go for a medical check-up.

Weighing a baby at the posyandu

Clean water has become a huge problem because of environmental pollution, waste and agricultural chemicals. Java Village has carried out research to find solutions and has provided information on the importance of clean drinking water. Research has also been undertaken into the possibility of using biogas to keep fertilizers out of the water and to reduce the dependence on expensive fuels.

For further information please visit our website http://www.javavillage.org/ or contact us at info@javavillage.org.