In 2020 Better World Initiative fully funded a 3-5 year GHNI Transformational Community Development Project in Polewali village, Sulawesi, Indonesia. The project started in 2020 and is expected to be completed in around 2024.
This project has been fully funded by Better World Initiative and CTT Trust. Better World funded the first part of this project in 2019-2021, and then CTT Trust (a different charity we run) took over to fund the last stages of this project in 2022.
BACKGROUND
A community struggling with income generation opportunities, a lack of access to clean water, poor sanitation and low school attendance rates. Many families saw their primary breadwinner working outside the province and sending funds home, and the primary source of water for the community was a stream that flowed through the village. Only one latrine (owned by a local business) existed in the village.
Our team has worked to raise awareness and address several issues under the guidance of the local TCD committee. There is a soap-making business cooperative, a water committee that has overseen the drilling of five new water sources offering vastly improved water quality, and most recently an initiative to begin building latrines in the village. Our team is also working with another group of community members to develop income generation models focused on livestock production.
JANUARY 2023 UPDATE
Income Generation
There was already a palm oil business in Polewali when the TCD Project started. There is now a soap-making business as well, where the women are currently making bar soaps using locally sourced coconut oil sediment (a by-product of the village’s virgin coconut oil production initiative). They plan to sell the soap on the island of Java. They are also planning to make liquid soaps for dish washing. The TCD team is also working with another group in the community to develop income generation models focused on livestock production (the current plan is to raise chickens).
Water Supply and Latrines
Five new water sources have been drilled, providing improved water quality. More latrines are also being built in the village (most of the villagers don’t own their own land, so negotiations needed to be undertaken with land-owners and funds raised before new latrines could be built). Neighbours have been pooling their own resources (with added financial help from GHNI) in order to fund the latrines.
Villager members can now get clean water from faucets instead of going back and forth from the river.
Kiki is a mother of four, who was born and raised in the Polewali Village. Her life is similar to most women in her community – taking care of the household, raising goats owned by wealthier people from the outside, and seeing her husband come and go to temporary farm labour jobs wherever he can find work. Previously, she spent a lot of time and energy walking back and forth to the river for water. Now, she just turns on the faucet for well water of much better quality. This frees up her time to engage in activities that generate income. Specifically, she is skilled at weaving and can produce and sell two “sarongs” per week. Kiki and her family are now saving their money to construct a bathroom. TCD lessons have encouraged awareness in the community, drawing the connection between unhygienic practices and health issues that particularly the children have been experiencing.
