Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

32 PERSISTENT PROBLEMS, PROMISING SOLUTIONS AND BENEFICENCEthrough donations from the Swiss government andSAFM Radio, Adelaide, Australia. From 2003 to2006, the clinic provided dental care and treatment,general health examinations and PAP smears at variouslocations, including orphanages and elementary schools,in nine Bali regencies.In August 2005, BHF was selected as the best nonprofitfoundation in Bali by the government. It was alsonamed the “number one” foundation in Indonesia.Category 3: Grant-making foundationsGrant-making foundations raise funds which areutilized to provide grants to NGOs.• Kehati—The Indonesian Biodiversity FoundationKehati, established in 1994 in Jakarta, has the distinctionof being the first grant-making NGO in Indonesia. Itsinitial funding support came from the United States ofAmerica in the form of an endowment grant. Annually,Kehati is able to allocate six percent of the value ofthe endowment fund for the implementation of itsprograms. Kehati currently receives funding from bothdomestic and international sources.Its mission includes supporting biological diversityconservation and the sustainable utilization of biologicalresources; empowering communities and otherstakeholders in biological diversity conservation; andsupporting the development, enactment and adoptionof policies to secure the conservation and sustainableutilization of biological resources. Its program areasare education and training, institution building,environmental conservation, community development,research, advocacy, publications and public information,and emergency and disaster relief.Kehati places a great emphasis on building the capacityof communities to enable them to be economicallyself-reliant, with local knowledge forming the basisof conservation and economic activities. Indonesia’sbiological diversity is its strength. For example, followingthe financial crisis of 1997, the prices of medicinesskyrocketed and many died from lack of access tomedicines. A solution was found in Madura, once thecradle of Indonesian herbal medicine. Kehati revivedits tradition of producing herbal cures. Pesantrens,health centers and universities have been successfullyparticipating in this project for the last seven years.Category 4: Community/horizontal philanthropyCommunity forms of philanthropic activities are stillstrong in Bali. In the villages of Kiadan Pelaga andTenganan, pluralistic collectivism and seka (to be one)principles have sustained a social structure deeplyrooted in Balinese cosmology. Most activities areundertaken in groups. The banjar (village) is steepedin the desa adat (village customs) and are regarded askin-like communities. Adat institutions provide theorganizational base for a balance between individualand collective interests and good. Tenth centuryBalinese inscriptions make references to banjar putus(obligatory ceremonial contributions) and banjar sukaduka(mutual help in joy and sorrow). The sharing ofagricultural resources, water and irrigation throughsubak (cooperative or village customary organizations),equity in development projects, collective cremations,group preparations, and participation in celebrationsand ceremonies, environmental conservation andthe sale of land and negotiations with the state are allpremised on adat structures (Warren 1995). Theseconcepts have been sustained in Kiadan Pelaga andTenganan where the banjar functions as the conduit forritual, social, economic and administrative activities.The egalitarian codes in village structures have beeninstrumental in the implementation of all projectsinitiated by Yayasan Wisnu. YW facilitates itscommunity programs through the adat institutions.The labor required for implementing projects iscommunity-based and voluntary. One empoweringactivity is mapping of the village territory/resources bythe community. Says Komang Suarasa, a young manfrom Tenganan, “It took us a year to map 940 hectaresof our village. I know and understand my land now. Iam proud of that.”Both Tenganan and Kiadan Pelaga bear testimonythat strong communities and leadership are central tosustaining villages. The adat rules protect biodiversityto keep the balance. “If you lose biodiversity, everythingcollapses,” say the villagers.Tenganan is proud that it has sustained and protectedone of Indonesia’s oldest villages through the strictenforcement of adat rules. Any villager who cuts treesin the forest suffers the severe punishment of beingbanished from the village. The forest in Tenganan isabundant with fruits, nuts, herbs, flora and fauna. As awater catchment area, it provides water to many villages.“The strong leadership and strict enforcement of adathave kept away state interference and hoteliers,” statesI.M. Sadr, a former dinas head and respected opinionleader of Tenganan.Meanwhile, Kiadan Pelaga is a showcase for the naturalAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows