Berita CWS

By Ilmi Suminar, Indarwati, and Harun Tambing

Tana Toraja of South Sulawesi Province is famous for its culture. Its traditional settlement, which consists of  a compound of houses called Tongkonan, granaries, burials, ceremonial grounds with menhirs, rice fields, bamboo forest and grazing ground or pasture for buffalo and pigs and preserves the characteristic of early Austronesian culture, has been proposed for the inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage list.  The area has become one of Indonesia’s prominent tourist destinations since 1984. In fact, the economy is now mainly based on tourism, besides agriculture.  Furthermore, Toraja is also well-known among coffee aficionados as it produces one of world’s best Arabica coffees.  

By Ilmi Suminar and Vinsen Surma

Indonesia has reached some milestones towards Millennium Development Goals especially on eradicating absolute poverty and hunger. The proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day dropped from 20.60% in 1990 to 5.90% in 2008, meaning that the country has already passed its target of 10.30%. In 2010 prevalence of malnutrition in children under five years of age was 4.9%, targeting 3.6% by 2015, whereas the prevalence of underweight in children under five years of age was 13.00%, targeting 11.9% by the end of MGDs period.

West Timor, part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, is highly prone to natural disaster, especially drought. Severe prolonged drought has significantly dropped crop yield. A research shows that food availability at the household level was mostly relied on the harvest of one planting season during rainy season for the whole year. This has led to food insecurity at the household level and thus reduced food consumption, wearing down the nutrition and health status of its people. West Timor, especially Timor Tengah Selatan District, always had a very high number of undernourished children.

On August 18th, Central Sulawesi was struck by a 6.3 Richter scale earthquake, followed by aftershocks. The quake, which epicentered 56 KM southeast of the provincial capital of Palu, was felt in three sub-districts of Sigi District: Lindu, Kulawi, and Gumbasa.  It has damaged 2045 homes, 330 of which were destroyed. More than 4000 people were displaced from their homes. Some public facilities such as district offices, community halls, houses of worship, schools and health facilities were severely damaged. Landslides occurred in several areas across the district. The quake, occurring on a Saturday evening when many residents were inside their homes, claimed six lives and injured dozens of people. The local government immediately declared the state of emergency for a period of 25 days.

Air bersih merupakan kebutuhan utama dan vital bagi kehidupan manusia dan makhluk hidup lainnya. Sebagai sumber daya air bersih telah menjadi langka, berbagai upaya untuk menjaga kualitas air cukup baik telah terjadi di masyarakat. Pengelolaan sumber daya air, yang membutuhkan sumber daya manusia yang mampu dan terampil, menjadi prioritas utama. Oleh karena itu, kebutuhan air bersih yang terus meningkat selama bertahun-tahun dapat terpenuhi.

Staff CWS Indonesia, Lesvi Roselim dan Rod MacLeod, seorang konsultan INTRAC yang berbasis di Oxford, melakukan penilaian dampak untuk Christian Aid dan Prospery Raymond, Direktur Christian Aid untuk Haiti, melakukan perjalanan ke lima kabupaten: Aceh Besar, Banda Aceh, Pidie Jaya, Aceh Barat dan Nagan Raya di Provinsi Aceh di mana CWS memberikan bantuan kepada masyarakat yang terkena dampak gempa dan tsunami pada tahun 2004. Kunjungan dari 03-13 Oktober, 2011 dilakukan sebagai bagian dari Penilaian Dampak Bantuan Christian Aid yang bertujuan untuk menarik pelajaran dan implikasi dari kebijakan respon kemanusiaan dan praktek di masa depan.