Virginia Thomas, SDIA, Lawrence Fryer, SDIA Director and SD Germany team member, Renee Zimmer, SD Germany, Stephanie Holloway, SD Britain, Lusijah Marx, SD USA, Leonore Waage, SD Norway

Part 1
SD India/Indonesia Odyssey: Learning Together and from Each Other

SD Network visiting team in India.

Some people have asked us—why spend money on travel, when the project needs are so great? The reality is that we are increasingly aware that to meet these needs, and to fundraise for our SD projects, SD nationals and SDIA need to invest in our own learning—to understand the strengths and challenges that our SD projects face in their local context.

The SD Network visiting team in India.

The Trip was originally planned at the initiative of Lawrence Fryer, who needed to visit India, and specifically Anisha, on yearly follow-up visit in the context of the BMZ grant for Anisha's Rural Project on the Promotion of Organic Farming and Rural Livelihoods. It had been agreed that Renee Zimmer would accompany him to lend support. Lawrence also asked Virginia to travel with them, to develop a shared knowledge and understanding of the state of the projects. Other SD nationals who have also contributed to the NGO portion of the grant were also eager to learn for themselves about progress of this and other SD projects they are supporting.

From October 1 to October 11, representatives of SD Britain (Stephanie Holloway), SD Germany (Renee Zimmer and Lawrence Fryer), SD Norway (Leonore Waage, Stella Engebretsen and Solfrid Viset), SD USA (Lusijah Marx) and Virginia Thomas, SDIA Executive Director, visited India to learn together about the successes and challenges faced by SD projects in India. Stephanie, Lawrence, Renee and Virginia then went on to Indonesia to visit SD Indonesia and SD projects there from October 12-25th, 2010.

This trip was a first for the SD network, a kind of "study tour" that was funded mostly by the travelers themselves, to deepen their knowledge about the projects they are supporting and raising funds for. This shows the great commitment of SD nationals team members to personal learning about the project support work they have undertaken.

We learned a great deal, first from project leaders, and also, because of our different backgrounds, experiences as SD national team members, from each other. We learned what makes a strong proposal and how to monitor and assess progress. If, like SD Germany, more SD nationals are to leverage the funding from governments and other funding sources to help sustain SD project activities, we need to work together as fundraising teams to support a greater number of worthwhile projects than any single SD national organization can do.

Thanks to all the project leaders, as well as to Ariana Susanti (SD Indonesia Chairlady) and Lajpat Rao (Chairman of SD India) who went to so much effort to receive the SD Nationals group and share their wealth of development experience with us. This is a report on our trip and lessons learned that we should apply in the future.

Lesson 1: This is a useful exercise for the strengthening of our SD Network and one that could be repeated in other countries. Contrary to our concerns about travelling in such a large group, and posing a burden to SD projects and SD nationals receiving us, in the final analysis, it was probably much less disruptive to the projects to have had a group such as ours visiting all at once, rather than having had to organise a number of separate individual visits. The group covered all its own travel and accommodation costs, as well as those of our project hosts, and in some cases left small donations for the project in question.

From the point of the group dynamic, the SD visitors were very harmonious and respectful, each bringing a valuable contribution, based on their knowledge and experience. For example, Stephanie Holloway of SD Britain was quite knowledgeable about organic farming and identified issues around soil quality and seed banking that other team members would not have thought of; the SD Norway group brought a great sensitivity to the broader political issues facing indigenous and tribal people and workers rights that our Network will be able to build on in the future; Renee and Lawrence brought great project management experience, based on years of managing BMZ grants in India and Indonesia; Lusijah Marx brought a great insight into projects based on her own experience in psychology and in starting and managing her own SD integrative health centre in Portland. All told, there was a clear value added to travelling as a group, to sharing costs and insights, and to thinking strategically as to how, as a network in which each member has limited means, we can support the greatest number of projects to achieve their goals.

Recommendation: It would be worthwhile planning a future joint visit: upcoming opportunities are a visit to the DRC in January-February 2011; also to Colombia/Ecuador/Peru in the not too distant future.

PART I. Visit to SD India and Indian Projects

Mithra's apartment building.

Visit 1. Mithra Foundation's Facilities in BangaloreThe SD Nationals/SDIA group first visited Mithra's facilities in Bangalore. The site was deserted, due to the fact that the city was under a curfew after a High Court ruling that decided on the proportion of a sacred temple site that belonged to the Hindu and Muslim communities. The curfew was declared in anticipation of the communal violence that the ruling could provoke. Fortunately none took place, but this nonetheless revealed to the team communal tensions and conflict remain a fact of life in India.

Mithra's apartment building.

The visitors were shown by Bella and Joe, project leaders, a number of impressive school buildings all built with BMZ and SD Germany funds: A large primary and secondary school building that appears to have the capacity to easily accommodate 400 or 500 students (current registration is 200 students), as well as a large Vocational Training center, originally built to provide skills

training to young women going into the tailoring industry. The intention was for the Vocational Training Centre to not only be self-sufficient, but also to fund Mithra's school. But after an initial contract with Tommy Hilfiger fell through, there has been limited use of the Vocational Training centre. A few women receive tailoring classes on outdated machines, and Mithra offers a Teacher’s Training Diploma course that students pay for and is always full. Otherwise, the buildings appear rather underutilised. The school building itself has a large cafeteria that is also not being used. There is also a small, run down small school building built on another plot that is not longer being used, sitting on a piece of land that according to Bella and Joe has increased 10 times in value over the years.

The SD team was pleased and surprised when Bella and Joe Rosario of Mithra Foundation showed them a newly completed fifteen-unit apartment building on the site of Mithra's School and Vocational training center that will generate about $6000 in income from 3 flats for supporting the school and tuition fees of poor children. But, still, the operating costs of the school and Vocational Training centre are not fully covered by this investment and new approaches need to be found if Mithra is to continue achieve its objective of providing high-quality education to the poorest children. The team explored a variety of options that Mithra might use to generate additional income, but the ball was left in their court to propose how the various buildings and assets that Mithra owns might be used to generate more income from the school. Joe also suggested that in the longer term, the management of the school might be given to the Nuns or another organisation to run, so that they could focus on their human rights education work that has expanded to other Indian state schools, such as in Tamil Nadu, and also their coordination and advocacy work with other Southern India human rights organisations. Lusijah Marx has returned to United States with the objective of fundraising for scholarships for poor children. She has already raised funds for 20 scholarships in addition to project funding provided by SD USA. Donors are asked to make a commitment of $100 US per year for three years to ensure that poor children can continue to benefit from an education at Mithra School. Mithra School has recently begun to charge tuition fees to those students who can afford them, but it is estimated that about 40% of the students, those who are the poorest, cannot afford to pay the $90 a year fees that are required to cover operating costs of the school. It was suggested by Bella and Joe that Mithra may have grown too fast for its own good, and it still needs help to cover core operating costs of the school.

Lessons and Questions: The situation of Mithra presents many questions, some asked by Bella and Joe themselves during our trip. Has Mithra grown too fast? Does it risk losing its focus on working with the poorest in order to maintain it’s present level of infrastructure? How can the current assets be made to work for the long-term sustainability of Mithra as a human rights organisation that focuses on improving the life-changes and rights for the Dalit and slum dwellers?

Lesson Learned: Slums are shifting places and neighbourhoods change. It is clear from Mithra that projects working in poor neighbourhoods do not remain the same over 10, 15 or 20 years as the local neighbourhood is upgraded and new slums form further away on the urban periphery. This experience has also been seen in Fundacion Amor, where people who have formerly lived in shacks have now built homes, their houses have taken on value and their economic situation is improved. In the case of Amor as in the case of Mithra, the price for land has gone up considerably - this is a great asset for the projects, but it also challenges them in their mission and analysis of how to work with the "poorest" who are now much further away from the buildings. For this reason, some NGOs have decided not to build schools, but to support students in local schools and provide for up-grading, as they have seen the helping the poorest always means going to where they are.

Next Steps: A business plan is now needed from Mithra to show how it wants to go forward to make the best use of its current resources and assets in order to meet its mission and objectives.

Gangamma and Gopi.

Visit 2. SD India's Newest Project With Tribal People In CoorgThe team then left Bangalore to travel to the Coorg region, where Subud members Gangamma and Gopi are wanting to start their own project. Gangamma has been working with tribal women in the area on identifying traditional medicines from the forest reserve, now a national park. Because of the creation of natural forest reserves, tribal people are being expelled from the forests in which they have lived for generations. They are asking to be allowed to remain living in harmony with the forests, which are the source of their culture and traditional knowledge and livelihoods.

The group met with Gangamma and Gopi, a group of Tribal women, a traditional healer, and local Forestry Department of the University of Bangalore. Gopi introduced the SD team to a concept that they have to start a multi-purpose centre that would provide services, not only in natural healing, but also support to families dealing with mental illness. In reality he and Gangamma have been dealing with her bipolar disorder, as well as that of their son.

The SD team tried to be supportive, and to explain that the idea of the Centre that was being proposed was too vast, expensive and lacked coherence to be funded right off the bat. We, particularly Lawrence, Renee and myself, convinced Gopi to focus the proposal on working specifically with the tribal women in the health sector. The SD Norway sisters were also hopeful that they might be able to find some funding for a focused project on tribal women and their rights to the forest resources from a Norwegian NGO that one of them is associated with.

As a result, Gopi has reformulated the proposal nicely, but upon their return to Norway, the SD Norway team discovered that India is not on the list of priority countries for that organisation. Still the proposal is good, and Gopi's NGO, CIVIDEP, has a strong reputation and would be a good project partner. Gangamma is an expert on medicinal plants and has published a book documenting traditional knowledge about natural medicine.

It remains for SDIA and SD nationals to try to see if and how we can find about $10,000 in start up funding for this new SD initiative.

Next steps: SDIA is currently researching grant opportunities for which proposals can be prepared to support the project, although this project has yet to become officially an SDIA member project. Application to SDIA for associate membership will be a next step for the project to take if it wishes.

Lessons Learned: Along the way, however, our team also learned quite a bit about the challenges of working to promote organic farming and sylviculture in this region of India; challenges that apply also to other SD projects wanting to promote organic agriculture as an viable economic, health and environmental alternative to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

Later in our trip, we were able to compile a list of lessons learned regarding organic agriculture projects that will be included in this report in Annex 1.

Questions: As a new potential SD project (not yet a member) the Ashoka Centre represents a challenge to the SD network. How do we continue to grow, to include and support new SD projects, where our older projects are still heavily reliant on SD support. How can we expand the number of people who are ready to get to know about and take on working with new projects? While our team supports the initiative of Gangamma and Gopi, it is clear that no one SD national has emerged that is ready to take on this project in the form of a longer-term partnership.

Visit 3. To Anisha’s Rural Programme

One of the most positive and gratifying visits of our trip was to Anisha's Rural Programme, outside of the small rural town of Marthahalli, about 3 hours drive from Mysore.

Thanks to the support of SD Germany, SD Norway, SD Netherlands, SD Britain, the German aid agency BMZ, and to hundreds of SD donors around the world, Anisha has been able to make good on its plans to develop a rural resource centre, three seed banks, and to deliver training on organic agriculture to hundreds of farmers in the project area. In all, about 375 acres of farmland have been converted from chemical to organic agriculture due to the efforts of the Anisha team and local farmers. This is less that the 500 acres originally planned, due in part to the fact that two communities in which Anisha intended to work proved to be too remote and inaccessible and have had to be reduced from the total of 21 villages in the project area.

Learning about Anisha's Rural Programme.

The SD nationals and SDIA team who visited India were able to meet poor farmers and understand their concerns, and be present at the inauguration of Anisha’s beautifully designed and inspiring Resource Centre, which will be the headquarters for Anisha’s rural activities and demonstration farm for years to come.

Anisha's team has been able to achieve many of the project's objectives and inspires a great deal of confidence through their great professionalism. They have identified a number of areas, in addition to training and technical support to farmers that need to be developed from the full benefits of organic production to be realised. These include the need for advocacy with the government to provide support to organic agriculture in line with the current strong subsidies that are provided to companies producing chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and the need to develop a strong farmers' federation and organic certification process that will help ensure that farmers get the best price possible for their organic produce.

Lessons learned: We were confronted with the reality that while there has been some uptake of the organic farming practices that Anisha is promoting, the economic reality is that farmers are mainly concerned with the bottom line. According to the Anisha team, it takes 2 to 3 years of consistent organic farming for the soil to recover its original and healthy composition, and many poor farmers cannot wait that long because they are dependent on the yields now to generate a livelihood. Also, organic agriculture does not promise to provide higher yields, but only yields that may bring a higher price to farmers if they can be brought to market in urban centres and certified organic in order to benefit from a higher price. We also learned that whereas chemical fertilisers and pesticides are highly subsidized by the state, organics are much less so, so there is a need to actively engage in a policy debate and political pressure to get the state to provide the same (or greater) subsidies for organic inputs as they provide for chemical inputs, or else stop providing those subsidies to the chemical companies. So convincing farmers is only one step, and must be accompanied by other types of NGO efforts - like certification (which can be very costly for small producers) and advocacy work, or else it will not be effective.

Anisha now has the task to realign the BMZ project to reflect these new insights.

A key for Anisha will also be to look forward to the end of the current BMZ project, which may have another two years to go, and to garner funding for after that. If we wait to long to think about the next phase of funding, the Anisha teams work in the area could be put at risk. This also goes for other projects, in that the fundraising cycle can be quite long, and we may need to be thinking one or two years in advance if we are to be able to sustain support for their efforts.

Visit 4. Centre for Culture and Development (CCD) changes project area

Lusijah Marx and Samynathan Arulsamy (Samy)

Earlier in 2010, Swamynathan Arulsamy (Samy), the leader of the Centre for Culture and Development (CCD), was threatened and driven from his project area in Madurai. A local mining company thought that his efforts to mobilise poor farmers would threaten their operations. For now, he has lost access to the training center that he built with the support of SD Norway and , SD Britain and others. He has also lost access to the communities that he had been working with for some years. However, Samy is undeterred from SD work and has identified a new project area between Chennai and Pondicherry where he is beginning again to work with farmers to promote organic farming techniques as an alternative to dependency on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

SD USA Board member Lusijah Marx visited for several days with Samy has produced a report that is currently on the SDIA website. Lusijah found that Samy and his associate, Subbu, have only over the past two months gathered a group of farmers who are interested in organic cultivation.

Samy's project is focusing on the promotion of organic farming methods in five villages in Thirukalukundram administrative block in Tamilnadu. The five villages are Ammanampakkam, Jamberi, Perumbedu, Echankaranai and Perumbedu. In this area around a thousand families are engaged in agriculture for their livelihood with rice cultivation in a mono cropping pattern and use of chemical inputs. Samy has initiated dialogue with farmers in each of the 5 villages. According to Samy, most felt unhappy and unable to prosper under the present conditions.

The aim and objectives of the CCD project in its new location is to train and develop resourceful farmers in organic farming practices with the promotion of multi-cropping in fields and in household gardens in three years. Samy aims to strengthen farming methods using organic inputs and methods where the input cost can be lowered and to train farmers in sustainable, knowledge-based agricultural practices.

Lusijah reports that, in speaking with the consultants, especially to Mr. Mahadevan—a farming expert with 40 years experience—she was convinced of the value of the project and SD organic farming projects in general. She feels that SD organic agriculture projects address the need to enrich village life by improving the health and welfare of the areas' individuals and their land. The organic farming methods and environmental benefits can help to diminish the migration of farm people to the city where they frequently end up living in slums and disconnected from their families, community and cultural roots.

Questions: One challenge raised by Samy about working his aims in the project area was about the cost of labour, as many workers were tending to choose factory jobs over agricultural work. The daily wage of the agricultural labour was on a par with that for factory jobs, about 300 rupees per day. This combined with the small size of plots meant that finding sufficient labour to prepare organic inputs was a challenge for individual farmers. It was a question whether Samy should consider a farming "cooperative structure", where farmers would pool their land and gain efficiencies on hiring labour needed to practice organic agriculture. This question should be answered by Samy.

Another challenge for our team was who would take on some SD Network-wide responsibility for partnering with this project. Lusijah is doing a great job on behalf of SD USA, to help Samy develop a proposal that SD USA can fund in 2011. But understandably, given her own committments to the Quest Centre, she is afraid to take on too much personal responsibility as an SD Network advocate and point person on CCD. The SD Norway team are ready to fund Samy's new project, giving $3500 now, and maybe more in 2011, towards a budget that he has produced of $10,000. It will be up to SDIA and other nationals to try to ensure that we find the balance of the SD national support that is needed in 2011. Hopefully SD USA will be one source, as well as SD New Zealand and SD Australia, that have supported Samy's work in the past.

Lesson Learned: A longer-term challenge for the SD Network is to find and keep committed people who are willing to do the day to day work of project support, not only on behalf of their SD national but on behalf of the whole SDIA network. As the number of SD projects grows, we are quickly reaching the limitations of our capacity to provide project support in a responsible manner, which involves detailed knowledge about the workings of the project and the environment in which it is working.

Next Steps: Virginia and Stephanie will work with Samy to help him develop a project proposal that responds to the challenges and questions raised by the visit and can be shared with all the SD Nationals.

Visit 5. SRADHA Project area and Meeting with Women Leaders of the Micro-credit Self-Help Groups (SHGs)

Women self-help group leaders listen to and make speeches.

We were delighted to meet with some 100 women, who have become a powerful force who lead SRADHA's Self-help Microfinance groups at SRADHA's vocational training center in Thally, outside of Bangalore. SRADHA has created 68 women's savings and loan groups in 22 villages in the area. These women now benefit from more financial autonomy, increased savings and lower interest rates. These groups comprise more than 2,000 women and their families. This women's economic force was seen as a real success by the SD team. 88% women self-help groups have now reached the limit of what they can borrow (5 lakhs or 500,000 rupees) without more capital being put in and loans being re-negotiated. SRADHA feels that there is an opportunity here to go further by starting a new micro-credit fund in which SRADHA would lend to the women for more specific income generating purposes, and therefore circumvent the banks and retain the interest for its own operations.

With the support of the Blond Trust's funds for capacity building, SRADHA and SDIA have benefitted from an expert Capacity Assessment that evaluated how SRADHA can increase its effectiveness and outreach to local communities. The Capacity Assessment carried out by John Don Bosco and Vasu, two consultants selected by SRADHA to carry it out, indicated amongst other things that the Women's SHGs is perhaps the most substantial achievement of SRADHA's 18 years of community work. A major recommendation of the report was for Sradha to do a societal analysis and on the basis of this to plan their further activities.

Based on this assessment, we held a meeting with the consultants and the SRADHA team, to review the CBA findings, and chart a way forward. This was a lively meeting but which didn’t really address the points made in the report. The Ramamurthy family was asking, for example, why spend money on training for their team, when they don't have money to provide basic activities on behalf of the children.

Lessons Learned:

• Even though SRADHA's micro-finance groups are a success in terms of 100% repayment rate among women (only 20% for men!), the micro-finance activities still do not cover their costs, despite the fact that the banks pay a commission to SRADHA staff each time they return for a new loan. SRADHA's m-c activities are attractive to borrowers because they charge a lower rate of interest than other local NGOs, of which there are many. There are opportunities for scaling up SRADHA's m-c activities among their current SHGs, but only with a change in the design of the programme, involving more capital from SRADHA and new type of fund, say for example for micro-enterprises only, as current borrowing is open to the women as to what it is used for.
• SD projects, like SRADHA, may resist the idea of investing in Capacity Building because they see that they already don't have enough money to help the communities they intend to serve. SDIA needs to understand this and through our capacity building activities, try to support both some essential project activities, as well as developing a clear CB plan. Projects also need to be convinced that investing in Capacity Building will ultimately lead to a stronger project and the ability to get more resources, but they are not always so easily convinced!

SDIA suggests supporting a programme of activities both to further strengthen the SRADHA team and at the same time to include some concrete program activities:

Next Steps: SRADHA Capacity Building ACTION PLAN

1. SDIA agrees to provide $2000 towards the cost of the night schools - that would be for the cost of operation of about 5 night schools with an increase in the teachers’ salaries. These are funds that SDIA is already holding from an earmarked donation, and would not be from the Blond Trust funds.
2. With BT funding, SDIA supports that SRADHA team, including Charuvan, Narayanappa & Rajappa, and 4 women leaders to participate in ISI Societal Analysis (residential) training for 2 weeks. This we estimate might cost about $600 USD.
3. After this, John don Bosco would provide a 3 days of training to SRADHA team, staff and women leaders at the center in Thally, to develop a logic model and performance management framework, based on the new understandings and insights that have a risen from the ISI training. John Bosco has already been provided with 500 rupees for this meeting.
4. Bella has suggested that she could help find a gender consultant and work together to do a special gender empowerment training for SRADHA team, women leaders, and provide on going support to help build the strength of the women's groups into a force for social change, with a simple action plan for addressing their key concerns, in the 22 villages. (maybe around $1000 plus expenses)
5. If all this happens, by the end of 2011 SDIA will work with SRADHA to fundraise to support the action plan developed by the SRADHA and the Women's SHGs, under a strengthened programme around women's empowerment. This will be an opportunity to propose new action areas, around women's health, youth education, etc.
6. An evaluation based on the capacity building programme and organisational strengthening of SRADHA will take place by the end of 2012. That might cost $500, which is about twice what we spent on the initial CB Assessment.
   
   The total cost to SDIA from BT for this capacity building of SRADHA would be about $2600 to $3000, which seems like a worthwhile investment.

6. Meetings with SD India, Chairman Lajpat Rao, and SD India member projects

Gurdip Aurora

Two meetings were held with SD India project leaders, one a friendly meeting before latihan and our departure for the Coorg, and one towards the end of our trip. SD India Chairman, Lajpat Rao, accompanied the party for most of the trip, and we appreciated his help and support. At the last meeting with SD India at the Indian Social Institute, we discussed a number of issues and challenges related to having an SD India function in a country with such strong projects and project leaders.

• SD India Chairman would like to focus on working with youth, somewhat along the lines of what SD Indonesia has done. He would like to work on two SD activities with national Subud youth: emergency/disaster preparedness training and human rights training to be provided in conjunction with Mithra foundation. It is felt that these two activities would help draw national youth closer to SD work in their country.

• Joe Rosario

  SD India has a challenge to define its role and purpose, vis-a-vis SDIA, vis-a-vis the Indian projects, vis-a-vis the Subud membership. During our meeting it was clarified that SDIA very much appreciates having an SD India that can effectively represent SD projects within our association, as these do not have a vote. The challenge vis-a-vis SD India projects is that these all maintain their own relationships with SDIA and SD nationals. What is the role for SD India? It was agreed that SD India could support SD projects by getting to know them well, and finding ways that can support their activities. There is information to be shared within the local Subud community, as well as potential links to be made with national donors. It is up to the SD national chairperson to determine how best to help each SD project. Finally, it was suggested that since there are a number of projects working to promote organic agriculture among poor farmers, that there is a need to develop a clearer articulation of what organic farming can help to address in terms of the key development needs of the population. Professor Aurora came up with provided clarity by stating that "organic agriculture is better for the health and the environment, and if practiced correctly will not harm livelihoods of farmers." This articulation helped to clarify that while income levels of poor farmers may not go up as a result of organic farming (lower yields may be cancelled out by higher prices for organic produce), the overall quality of production may be better on many fronts - for health of farmers, for health of consumers and for the health of the earth. It was agreed that SDIA which received $100 in membership dues from SD India would return that to SD India to permit it to carry out some research and documentation of the long-term benefits of the organic agriculture movement and the rationale for supporting SD projects working in this field.
• A final issues was related to the funding of SD India itself. Currently it is SD projects that make a contribution towards the operating expenses of SD India. However, since Subud India is doing quite well, and this can be seen as a Subud function, it was suggested that SD India should enjoy the support of Subud India to permit it to play its role on behalf of the members at large, not only SD projects.
• SDIA also explained the about the Blond Trust Capacity Building Programme for SD projects, and new procedures for granting that need to be put in place with any project receiving funds from SDIA.

Part II
VISIT TO SD INDONESIA and INDONESIAN PROJECTS

SD Team visits Indonesia.

On Tuesday, October 12th, four of us (Stephanie Holloway, Lawrence Fryer, Renee Zimmer and Virginia Thomas) left India to continue on to Indonesia as Lusijah remained in India to visit Samy's project area in Tamil Nadu.

The team was warmly welcomed by Olvia Reksodipoetro at YUM's headquarters in Wisma Subud in Jakarta and Ariana Susanti, SD Indonesia chair. We went over the visit schedule with Olvia and as well as some critical issues. After a wonderful visit to YUM's Cipanas Village, the team began to break up with Lawrence, Renee and Stephanie focusi

ng on YUM's projects and programmes in Kalimantan and Virginia on YTS. Bardolf came to Jakarta from Palanka Raya and he and Virginia held a number of meetings with YTS contacts at YIPD, Blacksmith Foundation, Ford Foundation, World Bank and the Canadian Embassy in order to forward YTS objectives. Later, Virginia visited the Gunung Mas District with the YTS team in order to better understand the working conditions in the project area. These are some of the highlights of our trip.

Meeting with SD Indonesia

The structure of SD Indonesia is somewhat similar to the structure of SD India and SDIA itself. Both SD India and SD Indonesia are associations whose members are the projects themselves. SD Indonesia has the following members: YUM, BCU, Harkat Foundation in West Java, Susila Bhakti Cooperative (SBC), based in Wlingi and Blitar, East Java, Yayasan Saudara Sejiwa (YSS), working with street children in Bandung. The later three are smaller SD projects, not members of SDIA. YTS is not a member of SD Indonesia, but is a member of SDIA. SD Indonesia sees its role as having two functions. One, like SDIA, is to function as an umbrella organisation for SD projects in Indonesia, providing support and capacity building, particularly for the smaller yayasans (foundations) that do not get any external support from SDIA. The larger projects - YUM, BCU and YTS - are seen to be doing well on their own and do not need SD Indonesia (SDI) support. The second function is that SDI has developed its own specialisation in disaster relief, and they have taken on their own projects in a number of areas. SDI has developed a partnership with the Australian foundation "SkyJuice" which has developed a locally managed and maintained clean water filtration system, costing about $2000 for a 10,000 liters of clear water per day that can provide clean water for 100s of families at a low cost. At the time of our visit, SDI had also put a proposal to JAICA (Japan aid) to do an environmental sanitation project to dispose of both compostable and recyclable materials from several Jakarta neighbourhood, rather than having them burned.

SD Indonesia finances its operations from its own project funding and donations, and the project members do not provide any funds. So when SDI does not have any projects, its staffing is reduced, and it has lost experienced team members to studies and other jobs.

SD Indonesia also needs to look after the capacity building needs of its weaker members. On behalf of SBC in Blini, SD Indonesia helped organise and fund vocational training for youth in the areas of carpentry, motorcycle maintenance and small enterprise. Harkat Foundation in West Java has, according to SDI, a lot of land that is totally unused and underdeveloped, but the problem here is that the Subud group that owns the land lacks the will and vision as to how to develop it rather than needing capacity building at this time. There is lots that could be done with the Harkat property if local Subud members had an interest and commitment to this. (It is also worth a lot of money).

Next steps: SDIA offered to support SDI to conduct a Capacity Assessment on behalf of Yayasan Saudara Sejiwa in Bandung. This is a project with good potential, already doing great work with street children and victims of domestic abuse. SDIA and SDI would like to colloborate on a CB activity on behalf of this project under the Blond Trust CB programme.

Food for Thought: The structure of SD Nationals in both India and Indonesia, with the membership being the projects themselves, seems to pose a distinct challenge and limitation, since members strategically may avoid actually helping supporting SD nationals to do their jobs. This also does not recognise that maybe SD nationals can play a greater role vis-a-vis the national Subud membership, as is the case in SD India where Lajpat sees some space to actually do something.

Hosting AUSAID Volunteers

Computer stations.

YUM currently has about 6 AusAid volunteers working in its various programmes - one at YUM's Cipanas Village, and four in Kalimantan as well as a new volunteer coming to work on YUM's micro-credit activities in Kalimantan. SD Indonesia has one AusAid volunteer, a marketing and communications specialist whose terms of reference were to develop communications and marketing strategies that will assist not only SD Indonesia but also SD Indonesia projects. YTS also has two AusAid volunteers - a media specialist and a gender/evaluation specialist. Throughout our trip, we were able to see the very level of skills and experience that SD Indonesia projects have been able to access, free of charge, thanks to various AusAid programmes. YUM in particular has worked hard to cultivate very good relations with AusAid, and upon the return of AusAid volunteers who were away due to health problems or injuries, we had two selamatans to welcome them back. At one of these the AusAid country representative was there, and very positive about the experience of working with SD Indonesia and SD projects.

Lesson Learned: It would be extremely important, on behalf of other countries and SD projects, for SDIA to become more familiar with the countries in which AusAid is working and the criteria for accessing such high quality, experienced volunteers. This visit reconfirmed the importance of SD Australia remaining as a liaison in Australia to provide information and orientation to Australian volunteers travelling to Indonesia to work with SD projects. SDIA should gather more information about similar volunteering programmes that might exist within other countries, to provide maximum technical support to SD projects in need.

Visit to YUM's Cipanas Village (DAA)

Organic gardening at the Cipanas Village Community Centre.

Since the 2007 Evaluation of DAA sponsored by the Blond Trust, YUM's children's village or DAA has been through a significant transformation, from a 'orphanage' and boarding school to a community centre with a focus on supporting underprivileged children, youth and their families. At present, DAA has 300 children in its Vocational Training Centre, learning English, computers, sewing and other skills. There are 150 children a month that benefit from remedial and supplementary education and after-school cultural and creative activities. At the time of our visit, the library was packed with children doing activities and reading books. There are also 70 participants in a pre-school mother and child programme. There are plans to use the computer classroom as a tele-centre for adult learners and training of trainers in the evenings. DAA has also developed 2000 square meters of land on the property into an organic farm, supported by SD B. The plan is for the farm to sell its produce to local hotels and at the time of our visit, there were plans to hold a regular fresh produce market selling organic vegetables at the Jakarta International School.

During the transition from orphanage and Boarding school, DAA has also been working closely with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Save the Children to continue to support and monitor the well being of children that have been returned to their families. With government support, DAA provides 100 euros per year for 90 children deposited into specially created accounts in the child's name, to help cover school fees, uniforms, books and transport. Three social workers have been assigned by the Ministry of Social Affairs to work with DAA, the families and children to support and monitor the transition.

Lessons learned: Overall the process initiated by the BT-SDIA evaluation of DAA seems to be good. The transition has been generally positive, but not without difficulties: the former management of DAA resigned as they were very attached to the children in residence at the school. DAA now has a new manager, who is very positive about the transition, and says that children who could never imagine going back to live with their families now say that they are glad that they did, and have a positive sense of being reunited with and contributing to their families. In the future, SDIA sponsored evaluations must work as closely as possible with the project being evaluated, recognising that the aftermath of an evaluation takes time and reflection, and not to be in rush to see results immediately.

YUM's Malaria Project

The group met with Dr. Sinto who has been the medical doctor on YUM's team responsible for the managing the Malaria Control Project. YUM has been implementing a three-year malaria project in partnership with SD Germany, with support from BMZ. The project has recently been extended. YUM has been working the sub-district of Palanka Raya called Bukit Batu, the base of the Puskesmas Tengkiling. The sub-district of Bukit Batu with a population of 13,671 comprises 7 villages most of which have their own health posts. In total, 11 health posts were included in the project.

The project's objectives were to reduce morbidity and mortality rate from malaria into 50 % from the baseline data, and to empower the communities surrounding YUM base camp in protecting themselves from the transmission of malaria. The Malaria control programme consists of several components, following the model and protocal developed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund):

1. Diagnosis and treatment (with either traditional medicine or an ACT-combination therapy which combines Artemisia Annua and traditional medicine)
2. Precautionary measures like the use of impregnated bed-nets, inside residual spraying and vector control.
3. Provision of clean drinking water in Banturung and at two locations in Tengkiling.
4. Awareness raising to stop open defecation in fields and rivers and to encourage the building of individual pit latrines.

All the programmes have been successful, beyond the anticipated results, and this has been verified in an external evaluation which took place in March 2009. Endemicity at this time was already almost down to zero. SD Germany and YUM see this as a result of the regular precautionary measures and of better awareness and increased knowledge about the disease on the part of the project participants.

YUM's new agro proposal.

It is interesting to note that based on the success of YUM's work in Bukit Batu, the Global Fund approached YUM to extend its work to other areas of Kalimantan. Unfortunately, YUM has declined this offer for a number of reasons: their current team is very small, and it is difficult to find sufficient good and experienced staff to expand the team in Kalimantan. They prefer therefore to limit their activities to the Bukit Batu sub-district close to Palanka Raya and to diversify their activities there. Indeed, the problem of staffing seemed to be a real challenge faced by all the projects that we visited in Indonesia, but this problem is particularly acute in Kalimantan, which remains something of a remote area. Malaria control is only one area of activity for YUM, and others include a community centre and children's library, funded by Barclays Bank.

YUM also wants to take on the challenge of Denge Fever, which is a new disease to Kalimantan, brought in by increased migration and climate change. This is a very serious disease that requires new approaches to prevention and treatment, although also carried by mosquitoes that bite people during the day. Since our visit, a new proposal has come through from YUM to address the Denge Fever problem in Bukit Batu Sub-District, for a very small budget of 600 euros approximately. It's objective is to:

• To increase the awareness and knowledge of the community to address Dengue fever.
• To improve the behavior of community for proper actions toward Dengue prevention.
• To reduce the number of larvae of Dengue particularly in around the area of inflicted case

Questions arising: Based on discussions with YUM and Dr. Sinto, it was questioned how the current success of virtually having eliminated malaria from the target area can be maintained, with people travelling into and out of the area, carrying the disease that can re-infect people. Renee suggested if it might not be possible to keep some of the community cadres trained under the project working for another couple of years. Olvia was confident that the results can be maintained, due to the fact that people are using the impregnated bednets.

YUM's New Agro Proposal

Sandy Soil

As a next step of its work in the Bukit Batu Sub-District, close to Rungan Sari, YUM and SD Germany plan to submit a new proposal to BMZ for a project to promote and train villagers in Bukit Batu (7 villages) to improve their nutritional and economic situation with the help of kitchen gardens and a micro-credit scheme. Most village households have land around the home, but villagers are not currently growing much food, and their diet is not very varied. So the proposed project responds to several identified needs: the need respond to nutritional deficiencies in the local diet, the need also to substitute home production for expensive imported fruits and vegetables, and the need to develop alternative income sources from the sale of any surplus from home gardens, as well as micro-credit. YUM itself has purchased considerable land with the proceeds of sale of properties on Java as its plans are increasingly to focus its activities in Kalimantan, so the project would help it to further establish itself in the villages, while also experimenting and learning about growing food on both fertile and poor soil,in particular on sandy and peat soils, that make up a large part of the Bukit Batu sub-district.

YUM is developing two agricultural demonstration plots - one at Kilometer 30 (from Palankaraya) which is on fertile soil, and one at Kilometer 37, which on poor soil. While the fertile areas do not provide any immediate challenges except for the willingness of villagers to take up this new activity, showing results on poor soil that has few nutrients will require a great deal of research and development of additional techniques.