Mayor of Batu Appreciate Women Empowement Done by Wahid Foundation Through The Peace Village Program

Batu – Wednesday afternoon, 2 June 2021, Wahid Foundation, together with representatives from Working Group (Kelompok Kerja/Pokja) of Sidomulyo and Gunungsari Peace Villages, Head of Gunungsari village and Head of Sidomulyo village made a visit to Among Tani Town Hall, Panglima Sudirman Street No. 507, Pesanggrahan, Batu District, Batu to meet Mayor of Batu, Hj. Dewanti Rumpoko.

The visit was done in order to consult, coordinate and synergizing with government of Batu in regards of Peace Village Program initiated by Wahid Foundation in Gunungsari and Sidomulyo villages.

Through the opportunity, the mayor received the visit from Wahid Foundation, accompanied by Head of Women Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning Department (Kepala Dinas Pemberdayaan Perempuan, Perlindungan Anak, Pengendalian Penduduk, dan Keluarga Berencana/DP3AP2KB) of Batu.

Visna Vulovik, Program Manager of Peace Village Program and Assistant Director of Wahid Foundation stated, in order to achieve Sidomulyo Peace Village, Wahid Foundation will start through financial empowerment. After that, Wahid Foundation will attempt to slowly unite the society and make them communicate more with each other despite various backgrounds they may have.

Not only that, Wahid Foundation will also provide access to capital and entrepreneurial workshop through women’s coaching and empowerment, as a training for people of Sidomulyo and Gunungsari to see the potential of conflicts which come from intolerance.

“We provide training for the villagers to be able to detect early when seeing potential of conflicts arise,” mentioned Visna.

Furthermore, Visna added, the Peace Village Program have nine indicators, which are education and peace along with gender equality, tolerance and kinship practices, and the availability of institutions that will monitor the implementation of the program.

“One example of the implementation of the program is the creation of Pokja, observer of implementation of Peace Village Program on the village level, which members consist of 30 percent women,” said Visna.

During the meeting, the program Rumah Ayom was also explained. It is the program of providing protection to precarious members of the society, such as drop-out kids, victims of domestic violence (kekerasan dalam rumah tangga/KDRT) and victims of other forms of violence.

In the meantime, the mayor mentioned in her welcoming speech, the advantages of Peace Village Program, which has been running for four years, have been directly felt by people of Batu as the chosen village for the Peace Village Program by Wahid Foundation.

“The Peace Village Program has been really helpful for the government in empowering the society and strengthening the precarious groups. Through the program, not only the human resources of the people will be improved, but also financial-based violence can be prevented,” said Dewanti.

Dewanti also stated that the Peace Village Program is an excellent program that should be adopted by the government of Batu to be implemented in all villages of Batu. “It would be wonderful for the program (Peace Village Program) to be implemented not only in the two villages, but in all villages of Batu. We do not have to depend on the aid (from Wahid Foundation), as this program should be adopted to be the program of each village,” she added. 

Before the meeting was concluded, Wahid Foundation, through one of the Program Officers, MZ Fanini, explained that the Peace Village Program that has been implemented in two villages of Batu and in many other villages in three province: West Java, Central Java and East Java is in accordance with RAN PE (Rencana Aksi Nasional Pencegahan dan Penanggulangan Ekstremisme Berbasis Kekerasan yang Mengarah pada Terorisme–National Action Plan to Prevent and Countermeasure Violence-Based Extremism With Terrorism Tendency) and RAN P3AKS (Rencana Aksi Nasional Perlindungan dan Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Anak dalam Konflik Sosial–National Action Plan to Protect and Empower Women and Children under Social Conflict), which also refer to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).