Kabar Itah
Edition 26 : September - December 2010
Editorial
Rounding off the year, we just finished
the annual cycle of review and
planning that started in each village
and culminated in a two-day session
with all YTS staff in Rungan Sari.
2010 was a difficult year financially,
with a lot of uncertainty on the
company side. But now it appears
that things are beginning to turn the
corner. Already the East Kalimantan
gold project in Jelai is preparing to
re-start in January, and there is a
good chance the Central Kalimantan
copper-gold project in the Kahayan
is moving toward initiating a major
drilling program.
This news has given us confidence to
begin to restore our staffing levels to
what they were two years ago and to
re-establish our programs in East and
Central Kalimantan.
We lost a lot of momentum in the
interval, and some time will be needed
to rebuild trust and confidence in the
communities we serve.
Despite the gap in activities, the
feedback we gathered in the review
sessions with villagers indicated a
high level of interest in continuing to
work with YTS. Altogether, everyone
provided a lot of useful pointers in how
to improve the support programs in
2011.
We are anticipating a very busy
January and February with the start
of the government’s formal planning
cycle in all of the villages, and the
re-establishment of relations in many
communities and with subdistrict and
district government officials.
We all would like to extend to
everyone our warm wishes for a
happy and prosperous 2011.
Thanks very much for your interest
and support.
Bardolf Paul
Executive Director
Return to Romang
Fishermen on Romang Island prepare to go to sea in a dugout canoe
Following on from our preparatory
visit in June, YTS returned to Ro-
mang in August to conduct initial vil-
lage level planning with all six com-
munities living on the island. This
process required the full involvement
and participation of many community
members, as well as three weeks
of intense effort on our part. On this
occasion, YTS mobilized a nine-
person team, so that we could work
in three locations simultaneously. A
total of thirty-eight people from the
community also served as village
facilitators. At the end the process, a
management group was elected in
each village.
Using our participatory ‘Community-
Led Analysis and Planning’ (CLAP)
approach, villagers not only per-
formed an in-depth analysis of their
existing livelihood strategies, but also
brought to light many other aspects
of life on the island. The detailed
data shows that the communities rely
heavily on natural resources from the
forest and the sea. The non-timber
forest products that are harvested
include wild nutmeg, cloves, honey,
rattan and more. In addition there
are many opportunities for further
development of commodity crops.
Along the coast, seaweed is also
cultivated for the export market, and
the local fishing industry has good
potential for expansion.
However, like many other remote
islands in Maluku, the local economy
relies heavily on inter-island trade.
Thus, it seems that to improve the
income from farming and fishing,
these communities must further
develop their trading networks.
The CLAP process results in a
preliminary village development plan
that is approved by the community
at a final meeting. It is followed by
individual household level planning
sessions in order to build up a more
accurate picture of development
priorities for people. The results
will be integrated to create a final
village development plan, which
will be the basis for development
activities in the coming year. In this
way, we hope to make it possible
for the communities on Romang
to voice their needs, concerns and
priorities in a way that outsiders
in government, business and civil
society organisations can readily
respond to and support.
This effort is led by the Centre for
Social Responsibility in Mining
on behalf of the Australian miner,
Robust Resources. In October,
we disseminated our results to
the district government in Kisar as
part of an overall presentation of
the company’s Corporate Social
Responsibility strategy.
Women in Kahayan take to New Vegetable Program
In some villages along the banks of the Kahayan River, rubber cultivation.
some small but significant changes are emerging in
household agriculture. Most houses now have at least one Due to budget constraints in the last two years, YTS had
small vegetable plot in their back or front yard. This has to cut back its assistance in a number of villages. Recently,
come about because of a vegetable garden training program YTS hired two additional staff to re-establish its coverage
facilitated by YTS. in all three subdistricts. An annual review and planning
process has just taken place in all villages, and this will give
Although not much else has changed this year in these us a much better understanding of how activities have been
villages, this activity has made a significant impact. Rubber progressing, and what villagers want to do in the next year.
cultivation still dominates the local economy, but villagers
identified vegetable farming as a new priority for livelihoods. The review process also is a good opportunity to improve
relations with our partners in the village.
YTS staff helped organise a new program
to assist villagers in cultivating vegeta-
bles. Activities started in the beginning
of the year, with more and more villagers
becoming interested and involved as
the program unfolded. Village women in
particular feel that this is a priority activity
because it very quickly addresses house-
hold consumption needs, in addition to
increasing family income.
Now villagers no longer have to import
vegetables from other villages, and their
knowledge in vegetable cultivation has
improved significantly. This activity also
had a positive impact on the participation
of women: now they feel there is a place
for their aspirations. In the vegetable
livelihood groups, most members are
women. YTS currently is assisting six
villages in the upper Kahayan with
vegetable farming.
In line with the positive response to
the vegetable program, villagers are Members of vegetable livelihood groups, mostly women, are very excited about this new program as they find it fits their needs
interested in getting further training with for home consumption and revenue generation quite nicely

Hamida Thomas From SDIA visits Kahayan Project

In September we were very fortunate to receive an extend- development agency that would enable us to expand our
ed visit from Hamida Thomas, the Executive Director of activities to the entire district. So we spent four days travel-
Susila Dharma International Association. Hamida arrived ing and visiting communities along the Kahayan River.
from India in a review of projects and partners in Asia.
In Buntoi village, in the Miri River, we had an opportunity
Hamida wanted to see our community program sites in to observe some training in vegetable cultivation and to
Gunung Mas Regency, because we are collaborating on check on the state of our rubber support program. Sadly,
making a proposal to CIDA, the Canadian government the nursery that villagers had established several years ago
was badly neglected.
Accompanying us were three field
staff, including two new staff – Yuddis
and Wulan. Wulan will be managing
the program in the Miri, and this was
her first visit to the area.
On the return trip we stopped off in
the district town of Kuala Kurun and
met with officials from the Planning
Department, as well from Agriculture,
Plantations, Forestry, and Commu-
nity Empowerment departments. We
had a useful discussion centering on
the CIDA proposal we were getting
ready to submit.
Back in our office in Palangka Raya,
Hamida met with all of the staff and
we discussed some of the challenges
we were facing in our projects.
Hamida brought a different and
refreshing perspective to our work,
YTS Executive Directors, Hamidah Thomas from SDIA and YTS field staff meet with the Head of Bappeda and other and she helped provoke some useful
departments in Gunung Mas District
thoughts and insights.

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Success with Fish and Chickens in Bukit Batu
Closer to the year’s end,
economic livelihood groups
in Bukit Batu have been busy
finishing the last stages of their
livelihood training activities.
Although activities stopped for
a month in August due to YTS
involvement in another project,
they began again with renewed
vigour at the beginning of
October.
In early November, some of the
groups had already harvested
their chickens and fish, and had
sold them in the local market.
In Tumbang Tahai, Sei Gohong
Lewu and Tangkiling, three
livelihood groups harvested their
fish stocks and sold them in
bulk to a buyer, and two groups
in Habaring Hurung managed
to harvest tens of kilograms of
chicken for the local market.
Results of the training In Tumbang Tahai, Interest Group members harvest their fish as the result of the succesful training
have been quite satisfying.
Successful livelihood groups
can now proudly display their achievements. Unsuccessful things from working together in groups, such as the value of
groups can learn from their examples. Various factors participation and taking initiative. The village management
contributed to the failures, such as poor maintenance groups improved their own capacity to manage the training
practice and bad stock, but most were due to poor and how to link people’s needs to relevant resources, such
application of what was taught in the training. as outside technical expertise, local government programs,
and support available through YTS.
Successful livelihood groups followed carefully instructions
provided by the trainers, and they adopted the recommend- These valuable experiences can be a good example for
ed practices. Unfortunately, not all groups applied the recom- all members of the livelihood groups and for others in the
mendations. community. Local government is learning the importance of
first building capacity before delivering any new livelihood
Group dynamics themselves were quite interesting, and program. Successful groups are now ready to move on to a
provided a source of learning for all parties. It is clear that in higher level.
order to improve livelihoods, people need to adopt improved
technologies. In 2011, YTS plans to provide technical support for economic
livelihoods that will focus on improving the marketing system
In addition to the visible results, villagers learned other and access to financial services.

Profile : Eliah Dean, Enlightened from his Experience at YTS

The quiet nature of relationships between villagers, government and YTS. As

Canberra, a city very
similar to Palangka
Raya (public servants
and roundabouts),
has provided some
space to reflect about
the experience I had
while volunteering at
YTS in the information
and communication
department.
When I first arrived in
Indonesia around Sep-
tember 2007, I was unfa-
Eliah Dean, improved his understanding of
miliar with the discourse
empowerment through volunteering at YTS
used in development.
Words such as capacity, empowerment and participation
sounded very interesting but held little reality. Added to
this was: How does an organization make such words and
concepts a working reality?
Over the three years of volunteering at YTS, a position
that focused on improving the capacity of the information
and communication department, I was able to see the
part of its service, YTS was working to achieve sustainable
outcomes that help communicate the needs of the
community with government.
When travelling to remote parts of the Kahayan, or local
areas such as Bukit Batu, the development discourse
and process was clearer. Training programs with fish,
chickens, and vegetables aimed at improving the capacity
of villagers. Furthermore, the Musrenbang process, which
YTS would offer to facilitate, revealed the non-tangible side
of capacity building.
In terms of media production, YTS used a participatory
media development approach. This approach aimed
at including end users, such as villagers and trainers,
so to create products that communicated effectively.
The outcome of such a process was improvements in
knowledge transfer and learning.
Three years of volunteering provided an insight into how to
achieve sustainable development and how an organization
is set up to facilitate this process. This time showed me the
people behind the process, YTS staff, villagers, trainers
and government officials, and how such people are the key
participants in making the development discourse a reality.

3 Kabar Itah - Edition 26

Strengthening Government Relations in Eastern Indonesia
In August this year, YTS facilitated a Community
Led Analysis and Planning (CLAP) process with six
communities on Romang Island in Maluku Barat Daya
District in eastern Indonesia. This work was done on behalf
of the Australian mineral resources company Robust
Resources, in collaboration with the Centre for Social
Responsibility in Mining at the University of Queensland.
As a follow up, Robust invited YTS to present the results
of this work at a meeting in October organised by the
Maluku Barat Daya district government in Kisar. The YTS
component was part of the Corporate Social Responsibility
presentation from the company.
The YTS presentation was very warmly received by the
Kisar Government. Senior government officials welcomed
the initiative to assist the community in its development.
YTS used this opportunity to explain the CLAP approach
and methodology, and emphasized the important role
of government and the legislature in the development
process.
The government representatives agreed that one of
the main keys to successful development is community
participation, as well as a strong relationship between the
community and local government. They also realized that
only by understanding the real needs of communities,
would they be able to deliver relevant programs for
development.
After the meeting, YTS staff met with the Head of Pulau-
Pulau Terselatan Subdistrict and the District Head of
Planning. In this short meeting, YTS explained the purpose
of the activities that took place in Romang, and shared
some details about the methodology.
These positive relationships will help create synergies for
a better, more equitable, and sustainable development on
Romang Island.

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

YTS Director and Staff

News Flash Agenda

January
East Kalimantan Project Re-Opens
Musrenbang at the village level in Gunung
YTS just received news that the Jelai exploration project will re-activate in early Mas, Bukit Batu and Romang Island
2011. This means YTS will resume its community development activities in the Initial Visit to Jelai, East Kalimantan
project area. External Evaluation of Kahayan Project
Ford Foundation & CU Program
New Funding from Ford Foundation
YTS has received funds from the Ford Foundation office in Jakarta to help February
Musrenbang at the sub district level in
improve access to financial services for villagers in Bukit Batu subdistrict. YTS will Gunung Mas, Bukit Batu and Romang
start working with the local Credit Union on this project in early 2011. Island
March
Back to Romang
Musrenbang at the District level in
In late January YTS will begin the second phase of its work on Romang Island Gunung Mas, Bukit Batu and Kisar ISland
in the Malukus. YTS will facilitate village development planning, linked to the Training of Trainers for YTS staff
government Musrenbang planning process.
Kabar Itah
New Staff Kabar Itah is the quarterly newsletter of Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta
(YTS), an affiliate of PT. Kalimantan Surya Kencana (KSK),

We would like to welcome three new staff members: Richardus Indra Gunawan a mineral exploration company.
Published by: Bank Accounts:
joins us as to assist the Executive Director in managing YTS activities. Yuddis and Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta
Jl. Rinjani No. 39
Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta
BNI 1946
Desi Wulandari started working in the Kahayan River project in November. Palangka Raya 73112 Palangka Raya Branch
Kalimantan Tengah-Indonesia Central Kalimantan
Telp. +62 (0536) 3237184 INDONESIA
Fax. +62 (0536) 3229187 Number 0114981608
Email:tambuhaksinta@gmail.com Swift: BNINIDJA
Website: www.tambuhaksinta.com

4 Kabar Itah - Edition 26