The Women’s Empowerment programme aims to improve the economic welfare of the Anambas community, specifically by empowering women with skills that allow them to be more economically productive.
We work directly with the women in the villages to strengthen their home-based, traditional snack businesses, teach them organic farming from home, and teach them waste-upcycling to create products with economic value, such as fused bags and coconut lamps.
The upcycling project has created opportunities to make eco-friendly products like reusable bags, masks, and coconut lamps. The goal is to sell these locally made products to markets across the region and beyond. We are continuously working to create the best quality products possible to compete in the market.
Gotong royong, or “mutual cooperation” in English, is the sharing of work between members of the community. The women’s group in Kiabu Village is very active in the community. They hold a community clean-up around the neighbourhood every week. This activity supports the implementation of the Foundation’s Integrated Waste Management programme in Kiabu.
As a way to improve their economic productivity, we train the women’s group how to improve their home industry products and then connect the women to markets, providing them with an extra income stream. The primary home industry products on these islands are banana chips, cassava chips, fish crackers, banana peel crackers, and rempeyek.
The Foundation’s Organic Home Farming initiative provides women with practical skills to grow organic vegetables at home. They can then sell these vegetables for additional income and provide more diverse and nutritious food for their family. Vegetables that are mostly grown by housewives are spinach, mustard greens, water spinach, tomatoes, and eggplant.
Since the programme was implemented, household vegetable consumption in the village has been steadily increasing. Many women are now able to feed their families with vegetables harvested from their own house garden. Meanwhile, the surplus of vegetables harvested by the women’s group is sold to their neighbours and other villages.
