Community Empowerment
1. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT: "AMBU HALIMUN"
To create a more sustainable and equitable society
Women make daily choices that affect the environment and livelihood; it is crucial to equip them with relevant knowledge and potential solutions. Departed from this, we are developing an empowerment program for women in Citalahab Sentral Village at the buffer zone of Gunung Halimun Salak National Park through two main activities: financial literacy and Eco print workshop to develop a local product.
“Ambu” means Mother in Sundanese language, and Ambu Halimun is the name of a group of women who bravely take a step to improve their skills and partner with us for a better livelihood while still preserving nature.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
In our first 2020 livelihood survey at Citalahab Sentral Village, we found out women have the responsibility to manage family finances. Yet, they lacked knowledge about how to manage it well and lower access to formal financial products. Good financial management is necessary to provide economic resilience at uncertain times and for the future family plan. We are working side by side with “Ambu Halimun” to build awareness of basic financial literacy and improve their well-being.
ECOPRINT WORKSHOP
As a tourism destination, Citalahab village has few products for visitors. At the end of this year, by partnering with Ambu Halimun, we empowered the women by giving them training skills to build their confidence, learn about sociopreneurship, and produce eco print products (scarfs, shirts) from natural resources around the village.
Arae – an enterprise from Bogor helped us train the Citalahab women about the updated eco print techniques and better its quality. Our goal is for the women – Ambu Halimun to be independent and develop their products sustainable and eco-friendly. Therefore, we empower them to strengthen the community organization and maximize their skills.
We are in the initial step to develop a sustainable alternative economic income with Ambu Halimun, and we need more support from you.
AMBU HALIMUN
Empowering women, empowering community
2. CAPACITY BUILDING FOR YOUNG AND LOCAL COMMUNITY-LED ORGANIZATIONS
Promoting awareness about wildlife and protecting them for the generation to come
Capacity building is developing competencies in individuals, groups, or organizations. It is much more than the training of individuals; it is about equipping individuals and organizations with abilities, resources, and opportunities to solve problems and with the confidence to influence others. Here, we learn from the local community about the traditional knowledge related to the biodiversity around them. At the same time, we deliver the knowledge we have to add value and awareness about the importance of the Citalahab forest and how to live coexistence with the wildlife.
AMPHIBIAN & REPTILE CONSERVATION TRAINING
Every snake with triangle shape skull is poisonous. Snakes are afraid of salt. The urine of frogs can make us blind. Those are the misperceptions about amphibians and reptiles common to hear, including Citalahab.
To straighten the facts and make more people care about overlooked species, we are partnering with Nathan Rusli from Indonesia Herpetofauna Foundation to share the knowledge with the youth and local guide in Citalahab.
In two days of training, we covered lessons from different amphibians and reptiles to first aid and how to handle snakes safely for 20 local community members with age range from 16-45 year old.
We also conducted a night observation and recorded 20 amphibians and reptiles around the village. It is a new activity for most of them while you can feel the excitement in the air!
