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The Good Shepherd Sisters entered Indonesia in 1927. Six (6) missionaries came from the Netherlands by ship to begin the apostolate of education for the daughters of foreigners. They then created a boarding school that served both rich and poor people. The Sisters then further developed the mission responding to the invitation from several bishops in Indonesia to enlarge their apostolate to other places including Bogor; Jogjakarta and Bantul in Central Java; Flores in the middle part of Indonesia; Batam, closer to Singapore; and Marau, Ketapang in the Pontianak Diocese 12 years ago.

In particular, the country shows wide regional variations in both social economic and human development and therefore in poverty conditions. Such inequality is exacerbated by the different level of social spending leaving many districts incapable of meeting the cost of basic social needs, while others are disproportionately compensated for their requirements. There is a strikingly large range of inter-district variations in both income poverty[2] and human poverty, and although these two poverty dimensions seem to be correlated to some extent, some districts vary in the effectiveness of the ways they have tackled these two types of poverty.

In principle, women in Indonesia have the same rights as men and have certainly made progress in terms of both employment, education and health, as monitored by the gender-related development index (GDI) . The GDI however gives only a partial indication of women’s position. In Indonesia, as in many other countries, women still face numerous social barriers, some more visible than others.
The women of the different ethnic groups present in the country show very diverse economic, cultural and educational backgrounds, due to the existence of pockets of poverty even in richer areas and to a high degree of social injustice. Even when the families earn enough or have sold their land to the companies, women have very little knowledge of house-keeping management and do not know how to best use their income.

The government of Indonesia has clearly recognized the right to education and in the past years it has already moved some way towards achieving the goal of guaranteeing this right to its people. However although the vast majority of children now enroll in school, only around half complete nine years of education. Around 18% drop out before completing primary school, while the rest either do not enter, or do not complete junior secondary school. Many parents will take their children out of school because of the pressures of poverty: either they cannot afford to pay the various incidental fees and the cost of uniforms and books, or they need their children to work at home or in the labor force. But another major concern for women is the quality of the education their children receive. At present this is often very low having a very negative impact on the youth. This area is so remote and badly connected with transportation that it is very difficult to get professionally qualified human resources to work in this area for a long time. In primary schools around half of the teachers are underqualified. In addition schools have very limited facilities and they cannot keep up-to-date with modern technologies. Many school buildings are in a decrepit state with very little equipment, and textbooks are scarce. In these circumstances, parents may well conclude that their children are gaining relatively little from school and would be better off at home or in the workforce. This situation particularly affects young people, marginalizing them and hampering their future possibilities.
Mothers complain, on one hand, that the children under the age of 5 often play scattered in the villages without any coordination or control, missing the opportunity to be prepared and motivated to enter into the basic school. On the other hand they have a lot of problems dealing with their teenagers children, who are very confused about their lives, as they are influenced by modernization without being informed and educated enough to make the right choices. They lack: motivation to study as they are distracted by other entertainments; challenges to complete their studies; clear goals to reach to fulfill their life. Many of them finally drop out of school and are not able to finish their education curriculum; however they lack the computer skills needed to compete on a higher-level job market. Therefore the girls get easily attracted by early marriages and the boys end up taking up simple jobs in the companies’ farms.

The Good Shepherd Sisters Marau community has served the people of this area for the past 12 years. The sisters began their mission by organizing sewing and cooking classes in Marau parish and in some remote villages. Nowadays their activities extend further beyond the parish boundaries. Their work in many villages mainly through the following: serving the children through the kindergarten; working as teachers in the Government primary and high schools; running the boarding for the girls coming from rural areas to Marau for education; running awareness programs for women and youth; providing training and support for the women’s income generating activities.

Holistic development of women, adolescent girls and community through capacity building and empowerment of people that generate sustainable development processes.

Short-term

• To renovate the Marau Service Center’s house in order to create a space and environment for the in-house projects’ activities such as: group discussions; women/ youth trainings; group/ individual guiding/advising. The local women and their communities will know, that there is a safe physical space for them to discuss about their life, their work, their family, their worries, their traditions;
• To provide trainings in: English, computers, and acquiring leadership to improve the women’s capacity to face globalization’s influence and continue studying or get a good job and earn an income.
• To provide opportunities for capacity-building, non-formal education and awareness raising in the villages on issues such as. spirituality, tradition, nature, morality, communication, motivation, gender, justice.
• To assist the women in improving the kindergarten spontaneously organized by the mothers in the villages by enhancing its education curriculum and the women’s educating skills. This kindergarten will eventually be fully managed by the village to which it belongs.
• To complete community development programs and trainings with a specific focus on economic empowerment through a livelihood/ income generative program based on weaving, crafting, sewing and cooking activities.

Long-term

• To create awareness among women on their basic rights as human persons and to promote their sustainable development to help them cope up with the challenges of life;
• To strengthen the women’s self-confidence and self-esteem, assist them in developing their critical conscience and empower them by increasing their level of information, knowledge and practical skills so as to help them become independent and self-sufficient in life
• To improve the women’s capacity in assisting their families and educating, supporting and motivating their children.
• To improve the women’s ability of managing the family budget, and widen the women’s opportunities to increase their families’ income using their talents and skills in weaving, sewing and handcrafting.
• To strengthen the women’s capacity of working together to build and support their community.
• To increase the adolescent girls’ motivation to study, to widen their life perspective and strengthen their respect of life values.

Project Planning

This project was initiated by the Good Shepherd Sisters Marau Community in Indonesia. (Suster-suster Gembala Baik Marau). The activities foreseen in this project aim at providing an answer to the findings of the needs assessments carried out with the women of the following villages Batu Perak, Karangan, Singkup, Airupas, SP5, Putaran, Marau. In the past year the Sisters visited all these villages conducting several individual interviews and informal group meetings involving approximately 230 women in discussing their worries, their burdens, their needs, their hopes and fears. Together with them the Sisters prepared the programmed activities, establishing the priority topics to be discussed at the workshops/ seminars, advising on their duration and deciding on both some regular and special events for the group.
The project was then discussed with both the unit leader of the Good Shepherd Sisters of Indonesia and with the Bishop of Ketapang.
Finally the Mission Development Office and International Foundation of the Good Shepherd in Rome helped with the project’s final drafting and by networking with the possible donors.

Planned Activities

The three main lines of activities of this project entail:

1. The renovation of the house close to the Good Shepherd Sister’s boarding and community house, which will host the Marau Service Center headquarters for trainings and meetings. More specifically, the works will include restructuring the toilet and the kitchen, replastering and painting the ceilings and walls, re-wiring the electricity system, installing new doors and windows, and finally furnishing the whole house. In order to complete these works the sisters could not find any companies ready to work in this area. They therefore involved the community in helping both with the works designing and with the costs analysis and finally with the purchase of the material and the workmanship needed to carry out the house refurbishment.

2. The professional trainings, seminars and capacity-building sessions organized in the Marau Service Centre. Besides the individual counseling and the community/parish meetings, the Service Centre will host the following trainings: computer literacy, English and income generating activities (sewing, weaving, handcrafting, and cooking).

3. The outreach program of meetings, seminars and informal education to be carried out in the 7 villages targeted by this project. (Batu Perak, Karangan, Singkup, Airupas, SP5, Putaran, Marau). The sisters plan to organize a total of 60 meetings and seminars on issues such as gender, the value of spirituality and morality, tradition and justice, communication with younger generations and children education. The duration of the sessions might take up to 4/5 days in each village.

To carry out the outreach program the sisters plan to publish six main publications with a lot of pictures especially targeted to illiterate people living in remote areas and additional hand-out brochures to distribute at the seminars. In addition they will produce didactic and education material for the trainings to be carried out at Marau Service centre and for the mothers involved in the kindergartens’ management.

Beneficiaries

At the end of the 3 years the sisters estimate that the project will have directly benefited 600 married women and adolescent girls (aged from 16 to 60 years) of the 7 villages of Batu Perak, Karangan, Singkup, Airupas, SP5, Putaran, Marau.
Indirectly the project will also impact the life of all their families reaching a number of approximately 800 additional people, including husbands, children and other parents who, at some extent, will also be involved in the meetings, seminars and training activities carried out by the project.