New Centers of Popular Education

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURES of SCHOOLS for SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

One of the leading ideas and main programs of INSIST is developing what we refer to as 'Schools for Social Tranformation' (SST), a network of local community-based information and education centers. This is an alternative system of non-formal education for local people to learn about various socio-economic, political, and cultural issues related to their daily life, so, they can reach a level of critical consciousness and have operational capacities and skills to push social transformation processes, at least within their own communities. For that purpose, they should have a minimum set of infrastructures and facilities, including a 'campus'.

Besides YPRI, Mitra Tani and LPTP, who have just accomplished the first phase of construction of their own PERDIKAN campus in Pakem, Jogyakarta (see its complete siteplan in the picture below), several members and local partners of INSIST in different places are now also starting, or have even already accomplished their own.

ENDE: SCHOOL of FLORES PEOPLE

FIRD (The Flores Institute for Resource Development), a local partner of INSIST in Flores Island, has bought a piece of land 2976m2 in width. Situated in a tranquil bay with a beautiful beach only 3 kilometers from downtown Ende, facing the peaks of Mount Meja and Iya volcanoes, with a green landscape of mountains, hills, and rice fields in its background, the construction of this campus (see the picture of its complete siteplan) will be started this year. The first phase is to build the office and the multipurpose open hall. The second phase next year will involve building the caretaker’s house and guest cottages. Besides acting as a training center for local community organizers and popular educators, the facilities can also be used by other parties, such as local goverment agencies, as one source of income for FIRD and its network of local community-based organizations.

WAKATOBI & BUTON ISLANDS: SCHOOL OF TOMIA's FISHERFOLK & LOCALCOMMUNITIES of BUTON

The Fisherfolk Union of Tomia Island —one of the four main islands of Wakatobi (Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia and Binongko) in Southeast Sulawesi, has been granted community land with an area of 7000m2 in the village of Waitii. The land is situated on a white sandy beach in front of one of the most beautiful coral reef colonies in the world. They have a construction plan to accomplish the first part (office, caretaker house, and multipurpose hall) before the end of 2007 (see picture). Members of the union have collected money—mostly from their own collective savings and membership fees—and received a small grant to support their program from the Media Outreach Program of WWF, to start construction. Beside its main purpose as an information and training center for its members, the facilities can also be used by other parties, including foreign tourists who are visiting the islands for diving at the famous Wakatobi reefs.

Meanwhile, another local partner of INSIST based in Kendari City and Bau-bau Town, Perhimpunan Suluh Indonesia, has also been granted 2000m2 of community land in the village of Lawele, on the east coast of Buton Island, about 40 kilometers from Bau-bau Town. They have just accomplished the construction of a multipurpose building on this site as an impetus of the campus of SERABUT (Sekolah Rakyat Butuni, or School of Butonese Communities.

CENTRAL MOLUCCAS: SCHOOLS of LEASE and SERAM PEOPLE

If our friends in Flores, Wakatobi and Buton islands are just starting, our friends in Moluccas Islands, ie. The Nusa Marina Foundation, based on Haruku island, and The Pasuri Foundation, based on the Seram mainland, (both are members of Baileo Maluku Network which is member of INSIST), have accomplished the first part of their campus construction. On Haruku Island, the campus is situated on a beautiful sandy beach at the Cape of Totu, about 2 kilometers from the main village of Haruku, separated from the island and city of Ambon by just a narrow strait 2 nautical miles wide. The campus (the pictures below shows the main office, cottages and multipurpose hall) also has a production and demo-plot for organic farming. The harvests are already producing various vegetables and fruits and have become one source of income for the foundation and its cooperative members. They also have two speedboats to bring passengers and cargoe to and from nearby islands (the group of Lease Islands.

A similar architectural design was used for the campus on the Seram mainland, which is managed by The Pasuri Foundation. Situated in the Village of Waru, on the roadside of Trans Seram Highway, about 30 kilometers from Masohi Town, the capital of the Central Maluku District. The campus also has 1500 hectares of pristine production forests, granted by the local indigenous people of Noaulu, one of the oldest tribes in Seram. The local organizers there have been cultivating the land with teakwood, rattan, and other perennial crops and trees. They are also using the huge land as a cattle ground while developing greenhouses for seedlings and a nursery, and they have already begun selling their agroforestry products to the markets in Masohi and Ambon City.

The construction costs of both campuses in Haruku and Seram were partly supported by the German Bureau of Adult Education (DVV-IZZ) and technically assisted by a Japanese architect from the Japan NGOs Network for Indonesia, especially in the construction of its earthquake-proof hall building.

THE NEWLY-BORN and THE OLD

There is actually another initiative which is still in its very early stages, the School of Farmers in South and West Sulawesi, facilitated by The Payo-Payo (local Mandarese word for scarecrows in the paddy fields) Foundation, a nominated new member of INSIST. Partly supported by ALTERNATIVES of Canada, they have just started to identify a piece of land which they will buy for their campus site nearby Bantimurung National Park, about 60 kilometers from Makassar City, the biggest city and main gateway of Eastern Indonesia

Besides all of the new campuses which have been mentioned above, some members and partners of INSIST in different places have already owned their own complete infrastructures for quite a few years: (1) the Sekolah Mitra Rakyat(School of Friends of the People) managed by Perhimpunan Mitra Aksi (Partner in Action) in Jambi, Sumatera Island; (2) the Sekolah Rakyat Kawasan Air Hitam (School of People of the Blackwater Ecosystem Region) managed by the Foundation of River-basin Communities in the hinterland of South and Central Kalimantan; (3) the Sekolah Banjar (School of Village Councils) managed by Wisnu Bali Foundation in the rural areas of central and east Bali; and (4) the Sekolah Rakyat Madiwun (School of People's Collectives) managed by The Nen Masil Foundation in Kei Islands, Southeast Moluccas.

These 'old' campuses have their own particularities. For instance, the campus in Jambi, situated in Piyungan Village, about 23 kilometers from the provincial city, neighbouring the campuses of the University of Jambi and the Islamic State University, have been focusing their organizing and educational processes on the issues of rural women empowerment and public health. They have facilitated the formation and development of Women Alliances in three districts which have around 40,000 active members. These local women organizations have succesfully influenced some policies of local government on women’s rights and public health services. They also have hundreds of hectares of freshwater fishponds and have become leading suppliers of freshwater fish for the whole province and provinces nearby. The campus itself —situated on 7.5 hectares of land with complete facilities such as a classroom, hall, office, dormitory, cottages, and a multimedia studio—can earn on average USD 4000-5000 per month. The campus in Buntok, Kalimantan, about 200 kilometers from Banjarmasin City, is focusing on community-based forest management and has already begun selling their products (honeybee, rattan, freshwater fish, etc.) to the market and even exporting them to other islands. The school in Bali is focusing on the development of a village-based ecotourism network against the domination of highly developed and commercialized international tourism industries. And the campus in Kei Islands is focusing on the empowerment of local indigenous people and their traditional autonomous villages to protect their natural resources, historical rights on land and in seas, and cultural identities. They have succesfully facilitated some impressive achievements with autonomous villages. One of them is the Village of Debut on the west coast of the Kei Kecil islands. Some researchers and international organizations such as UNDP have put Debut in their research and development agenda and have even recommended it to be disseminated as a 'model of success' in accountable local governance systems, sustainable resource management, and peaceful conflict resolution based on traditional customs.