Jakarta. The Pulo Kandang community sits juxtaposed against the large high-end shopping mall and upper-class residential area in Kelurahan Kelapa Gading Barat, North Jakarta. Pulo Kandang’s 750 densely packed households are situated on swampy land and are built from used materials including wood, steel, bamboo and cardboard. Most peoples’ livelihoods rely on scavenging and other informal sectors with insecure sources of income.
Watsan Action/Yayasan Tirta Lestari (previously YE Water Program) has assisted this community since 2004, with education and capacity building programs to improve water, hygiene and sanitation conditions. In support of Watsan Action, ESP introduced our Field School (FS) approach, a proven effective tool for development of sustainable community Action Plans in upstream rural areas, for a pilot in two slum areas: Pulo Kandang and Bintaro Lama.
Health and hygiene issues were the entry point for ESP’s first Field School pilot in Pulo Kandang. These materials were well received by the community as health and hygiene issues are intertwined in their day-to-day activities. The 14-session FS training began with an introduction to Fecal-Oral Transmission and was followed by problem identification, community mapping, transect walk and photo taking, seasonal calendars, institutional capacity mapping, trends, pentagon livelihood/resource analysis and bamboo bridge analysis to link ideas for community Action Plan development. These sessions concluded with the development of a community Action Plan.
After completing the training, the community of Pulo Kandang celebrated the inauguration of 16 FS participants on Thursday, March 5, 2009 with the launching of a Field Day. The proud FS graduates, all of whom were women, arranged the entire event. They worked together to prepare a poster presentation and decorated the venue, a small busy road bordering the front of their community, along Sunter Canal.
The event showcased the knowledge and impressive energy of the FS graduates. Materials and results of the training process were socialized amongst community participants including posyandu cadres, local leaders and RW/RT representatives, partner NGOs, local kindergarten teachers and local health clinic workers. “After doing the transect walk, I realized we have many environmental problems, particularly on sanitation, clean water and solid waste. All the garbage and human excrement we throw into the swampy area beneath our houses keeps coming back into our yard,” said an FS graduate, Hadriyah.
The participants also presented a sketch map and supporting photographs to illustrate the community’s available public sanitation facilities including public toilets, garbage piles, and groundwater sources. “Human feces contain a great number of bacteria and through contaminated water, flies and hands, the bacteria is transmitted into the human body, causing us to suffer from diarrhea,” Iin explained while showing the Fecal-Oral Transmission diagram to invitees.
In response to the above problem, FS participants developed a community Action Plan. The plan shows how all FS participants want to change the portrait of their community into one that is cleaner and healthier. The participants prioritized seven activities: behavior change promotion, improvement of garbage containers and communal sanitation facilities, training on community-based solid waste management, water filtration, gutter cleaning, and canal maintenance.
Prior to the Field Day, FS participants were able to implement two of the seven plans, including behavior change promotion through a hand washing with soap campaign for 80 women and children. In addition, 8 units of slow sand filter were constructed and used by 19 households with some additional 10 units being prepared. During the event, the FS graduates were able to demonstrate the filter unit in addition to the proper hand washing with soap technique.
A local religious leader and chairman of the local Islamic Foundation Al Hikmah, H. Miftah, whose mosque is often used for FS trainings, was very impressed with the confidence and knowledge portrayed by the FS graduates. “Until today, I would never have imagined that these women, who were usually very shy and quiet, now speak in public to explain the environmental condition of this community, and also speak about how to improve it,” he said. “We should help to support their efforts and work hand-in-hand with the local government and all of these women to make the entire plan a reality,” he added.
The event wrapped up with a singing and poetry reading performance by the FS graduates. The song adopted the well known “If you’re happy and you know it” tune with modified lyrics “Let’s wash our hands with soap”. The event motivated and promoted community participation, creating the groundwork for successful implementation of the community’s Action Plan aimed at a cleaner and greener community. ESP and Watsan Action/Yayasan Tirta Lestari will continue to provide technical assistance for this community in implementing the Action Plan as well as to support program monitoring and evaluation.
Endah Shofiani, ESP Jakarta
