Good Stewardship Needs Collaboration!

A Letter from Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta, serving in Indonesia

Spring 2024

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Dear family, friends and colleagues,

Mr. Supriyanto proudly asked us to take a photo together with the newly completed road in his village in the background. He said, “Ibu (mother), thank you for carrying to our children and their mothers who suffer from the impact of undernourishment.” Samigaluh will become even busier when a 51.5 km long road with a width of 14 meters from Yogyakarta International Airport to Borobudur Temple through the mountainous area is completed. Due to COVID-19, the road construction project was stopped and is now being resumed. It is hoped that these construction projects will increase the economic opportunities of the villagers in this rural area and lead to fewer children suffering from undernourishment and lack of vitamin B12. There is a direct relationship between economic opportunities that are directly related to the availability of nutrition for children and pregnant mothers.

Mr. Supriyanto is the chairman of the Ettawa goat breeder group which is a member of the House of Authentic Sense (HAS) Co-op. Together with members of the Ettawa goat group and other groups, they were recipients of the Samigaluh Globalization Response program. In 2019, Presbyterian Women gave a grant to the Center of Studies for Development and Social Transformation (CSDST) of the Faculty of Business, Duta Wacana Christian University, and HAS Foundation. This grant was then distributed to HAS Co-op which serves people in the Menoreh mountains. This grant enabled HAS Co-op to offer training programs and empower community groups and led to an increase in HAS Co-op members.

Since November, HAS Co-op has donated two liters of yogurt from the house of Adiluhung restaurant to four children and their mothers. Each family receives 500 milliliters of yogurt.

I began by explaining how to prepare healthy and nutritious eggs and that eggs can be eaten by pregnant women and babies under 1,000 days old. I peeled boiled eggs to give to the children. They ate them with gusto. The government had given two eggs to every mother and child suffering from undernourishment in a program that only lasted four months from August until November 2023. To ensure the continued availability of eggs, HAS Co-op sent me to give each mother and child a pair of hens and roosters to raise. Mr. Sumarno, who has raised free-range chickens, explained the process of producing organic eggs that contain Omega-3 fatty acids.

 The children were not quite comfortable with the hen and the rooster when I handed them to their mothers, but they were delighted when I gave them the yogurt.

The yogurt is a gift to undernourished children from the customers who buy yogurt from the House of Adiluhung. Every time a customer buys a cup of yogurt, they receive a sticker. Once the customer has bought seven cups of yogurt, one cup of yogurt is set aside to be distributed to children suffering from undernourishment in the Menoreh mountains. The customers then receive the delivery report of the yogurt on their mobile phones as a thank-you, telling them that a child has received their gift.

Recently, I explained the HAS Co-op entrepreneurial business model and its emphasis on helping Indonesian society live in justice and prosperity in a meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Dr. Perminas Pangram, and the director of the Master of Management Program, Dr. Andreas of the Faculty of Business. In the meeting, I highlighted how HAS Co-op’s programs focus on strategies to help children who are currently undernourished become the strong generation, the golden generation, which reflects Indonesia’s Golden Vision 2045. The goal of this vision is that Indonesia become a sovereign, advanced, fair, and prosperous nation by its centennial in 2045. Together, we reflected on the saying of Christ, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:40).

I am grateful to be involved in preparing the golden generation of Indonesia through my ministry together with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Through its programs HAS Co-op allows its members to help each other and elevate the unique strengths of each of their products. In the annual report, HAS Co-op has helped its members develop their businesses through loans of IDR 90 million (U.S. $6,000). In addition, the co-op has marketed member products at various venues such as at Yogyakarta International Airport, through online sales, and HAS Co-op gallery for IDR 70 million (U.S. $4,666). HAS Co-op members, namely those from low-income groups, can increase their income by acquiring updated skills in the production of their products so that they can compete with similar products on the market.

Last November, Mr. Istiatun and I attended the training given by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Indonesia. We represented HAS Co-op at the national meeting for supervisors of selected cooperation around Indonesia. In the training, the government asked co-ops to adapt to become modern organizations. One sign of a co-op becoming modern is the use of electronic bookkeeping applications which enable members to access information on savings, loans and other services.

The expectation of the government was discussed in the evaluated meeting attended by the management, supervisors, and managers of HAS Co-op last December. Dr Singgih Santoso, my colleague in the Master Management Program of Business Faculty, who is also a supervisor of HAS Co-op, said in the meeting that one of the indicators that HAS Co-op’s marketing efforts benefit its members is that their fashion, handcrafts, and culinary products enabled HAS Co-op’s assets to increase more than they would have if money had been put in the bank. It is so true that good stewardship shown in Jesus’ parable of talents is enhanced by collaboration. I would like to thank all the churches and individuals who have made HAS Co-op’s dream of becoming a modern co-op a reality. Please continue to pray for this ministry especially also for all Indonesians since they went to the polls to participate in the first direct national election for president, vice president, national, provincial and regency legislators, and senators on February 14, 2023.

Salam (peace)

Farsijana