Linked with Nani Zulminarni – Indonesia, and with A JOURNEY TO THE WORLD WITHOUT HUSBAND.
Program Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga It is a reality that not less than 6 million households in Indonesia are headed by women-due to the death of their husband either natural or killed in the armed conflict, divorced, abandoned, permanent illness of the husband, and single status. More than a half of these households are among « the poorest of the poor ». The social cultural value tends to marginalize the women headed families and a major part of the development program has failed to reach this group. The majority of them are between 20 to 60 years old, illiterate and have never been to even an elementary school. They have 1-6 dependent, working as are farm laborers and in the informal sector with average income less than US$1 per day. Some of them have traumatic experience on domestic and state violence … (full text Homepage in english 1/2).
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Address: National Secretariat of PEKKA: Jl. Lapangan 1, Kompleks Duren Sawit Asri, Kav 1 No. 2A, Duren Sawit, Jakarta 13440, Indonesia;
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About Us: PEKKA was originally developed in the year 2000, from the initial idea of the National Commission on Violence Againts Women (KOMNAS PEREMPUAN), to document the life of the widows in the conflict region, and the intention of the Kecamatan Development Program (PPK) to respond to the request of the widows who are the victims of the conflict in Aceh, to get access to the resources, in order to overcome their economic problems and trauma.
This project was originally named the « widows project » which was fully supported by a grant from the Japan Social Development Fund through the World Bank. KOMNAS PEREMPUAN then asked Nani Zulminarni, at that time the chair person of the Center for Women Resources Development (PPSW), to be the Coordinator of this program.
Through the process of reflection and intensive discussions with various parties, Nani then proposed to integrate both of these original ideas into a more comprehensive empowerment program. For the purpose, the theme and title of the »Widows Project » or the « Project for Widows » were changed to sound more provocative and ideological., ie. by putting the widows in a better position, role and responsibility as the head of the family, rather than as poor/ pitiful, humble, helpless and useless women. In addition, this project is expected to also be able to make social changes by raising the prestige of widows in the society. Therefore, Nani proposed to name the project « The Female Headed Household Empowerment Program » or abbreviated the PEKKA Program, which was agreed by all parties. The use of the term PEKKA also opened the door wider for the poor women community who could be facilitated by this program, such as women who has no specific status, because the husband left with no news, women who became pregnant and have a child after they had been left behind by an irresponsible man, the single unmarried women who carry the burden of the family, and the wives of men who have physical disabilities or are permanently ill. This group of women also has to face the stigmatization and problems that are similar to those of the widows in general.
The PEKKA Program was started in December, 2001, with the vision to empower the head household women to help create a structure of a prosperous, gender just society with human rights values. While the mission of PEKKA is to organize and facilitate the women headed households to be able to improve their welfare, to have access to the various resources, to be able to participate actively in every cycle of development in their region, to have a critical awareness of their rights as human beings and as citizens, as well as to have control over themselves and over the decision making process within their family as well as in the society.
In order to achieve this vision and mission, PEKKA conducts four main activities, ie.:
- To build a vision and mission as well a perspective of justice and equality in class and gender
- To increase the technical, managerial, leadership capacity and the Pekka personnel in their attitude of life
- To develop the Pekka organization and network into a movement
- To conduct policy advocacy and to campaign the changes in values in order to be build gender justice in the society.
- To document and publish the story of the life, struggle and activities of the women headed families.
PEKKA operates in 8 provinces, including in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, West Java, Central Java, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Maluku, thus reaching more than 300 poor villages. So far, hundreds of Pekka organizations have been formed/established at the grassroot level, and collectively, they own several micro financial institutions.
Homepage in english 2/2: … To empower the women headed households means to organize them so that enabling them to improve their welfare by fulfilling their basic needs, including their safety, increase their access to various existing resources, increase their participation in every stage of project and development activities in their area, increase their and the society critical awareness about their rights as human being and citizens, and to increase their control over themselves and the decision-making process in their family and in the society.
They need technical assistant to establish the women headed household groups, develop micro finance institution through savings and borrowing activities, have training on technical and managerial skill as well as personal development, handle their specific problems such as trauma counseling, develop their network and partnerships, develop their leaderships, and conduct policy advocacy related to their concerns.
Grant is needed for scholarship for the children, food and medicine for the old needy widows as well as for facilities and infrastructure for women. They need to be facilitated to document and publish their story in various forms, such as video, photographs and books, so that people can learn from their rich experiences.
The Women Headed Household Empowerment Program tries to contribute in solving some of the problems they face.
Related NGO links:
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