ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAM FOR SITU GINTUNG VICTIMS; A JOINT COOPERATION BETWEEN MAIPARK AND DOMPET DHUAFA
The Situ Gintung Flash Flood Disaster, which occurred on 29 March 2009 destroyed hundreds of dwelling houses and killed more than 90 people living there. Over 300 families became refugees and lived at temporary houses built by disaster-concern organizations. It has caused a deep grief to the victims. Similar to any other disasters in Indonesia, the most affected community in Situ Gintung disasters were the low income. House are their most valuable asset and when the disaster destroyed it, they become poor at once. Furthermore, some of them lost their families. This condition has made them very difficult to stand up and continue their live. Without any assistance, they will not be able to overcome this situation.Temporary food supplies are not what they only need. They also need something else to break the cycle of poverty and enable them to stand on their own feet.
Having realized the situation, MAIPARK and Dompet Dhuafa have come into a cooperation to give assistant to the victims in the form of economic recovery assistant program. The program will not only give the victims some cash to restart their business but also provide coaching, training, and monitoring. The program will cover 62 families with different backgrounds of small business, namely: warung (small retailer) owner, pengrajin tahu (home industry of tofu manufacturer), penjual gorengan (snack maker), etc. The program is designed as a group-based program. Each group will receive certain amount of cash to start their business. Monitoring team will support the family by side-assisting them along the process. They will provide training, coaching, and consulting assistant. The family can at any time request for advice from the team to ensure the run of their business.
Cash provided by the program is not a loan but a lumpsum. Therefore,the recipients do not have to pay it back. What they have to do is using the fund to re run their business or start a new one, so they can raise money from it and fulfill the family need.Dompet Dhuafa with its expertise will provide qualified mentorsfor the program, while MAIPARK will also contribute in the monitoring process. The program will last for 3 months, starting from May to July 2009
Through this program, MAIPARK, whose name often be associated with natural disaster, wants to promote the important of disaster mitigation including risk and vulnerability reduction, for example by using insurance services, particularly the catastrophe insurance.
Both parties, MAIPARK and Dompet Dhuafa,hope the program will benefit the victims not only for a short period but also to build a disaster-resilience community based on a better family economic capacity.
Mr. Urip Budiarto, the Partnership & International Affairs Department Manager of Dompet Dhuafa and Mr. Frans Sahusilawane, President Director of MAIPARK, after the signing of the cooperation agreement.