Project Women Empowerment: Health Nutrition – Natural Resources
After the inaugural activity on 19-21 February 2025 with the theme Women Leadership – Gender Equality, Van Deventer-Maas Indonesia continued the Women Empowerment project with 20 women from four dusun in Fatumnasi Village, South Central Timor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. For two days (17-18 June 2025), they received material and also practiced on “Health Nutrition – Natural Resources”. This second activity aims to maximize agricultural and livestock products and resources owned by the Fatumnasi Village community to meet the nutritional needs of the family. In addition, it is hoped that the community can be independent and improve home industries.
The activity was opened by the Head of Fatumnasi Village – Alfred Bay – expressing his gratitude to the VDMI Foundation for again providing an opportunity for women in Fatumnasi Village to learn together and be empowered. He hopes that VDMI will continue to collaborate in creating useful activities for the Fatumnasi Village community in the future. After that, it was continued with an evaluation and update on the activities carried out by the participants after the first meeting (February 2025). Mama Maria and Mama Nenci (representatives of participants) explained the progress of each group that had received donations in the form of display cases and weaving tools. They had woven several sarongs, scarves and blankets and some of them had been sold with orders via WhatsApp and Facebook.
Mardianus Epafroditus Ili, S.Pt., M.Si (Founder of P4S Afro Farm) conveyed many things that have been cultivated by the people of Fatumnasi Village and hopes that children who migrate can return and take care of their hometown. He emphasized the importance of fulfilling nutrition and household needs starting from one’s own yard. This can be done by planting vegetables, raising livestock and utilizing waste as natural fertilizer. Currently, the obstacle is the process of loosening the soil as a planting medium. After that, it was continued by Yolanta Yovita Kono (grantee of Nusa Cendana University) who reviewed the method of making animal feed using fermentation.
Fatumnasi Village, which is located in the highlands (at the foot of Mount Mutis) has problems fulfilling nutritional needs by consuming fish. Therefore, VDMI provided material on Budidaya Ikan dalam Ember (BUDIKDAMBER) for participants which was delivered by Heri Kurniawan, S.St.Pi, MP. (Head of Primary Production Team, Quality Agency of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of East Nusa Tenggara). This cultivation technique is an alternative solution for cultivating catfish and plants that are constrained by limited land. Participants are also given an understanding of how to care for catfish seeds in buckets so that they can be cultivated properly. Participants are divided into four groups and given equipment and catfish seeds to cultivate.
On the second day, participants were invited to think about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the Fatumnasi Village community. This is expected to be a brainstorming for participants to support activities that will be carried out in the future. After the discussion, the “Kelompok Cahaya Sahaba Fatumnasi” was formed which will be a forum for participants in developing community potential and resources. The activity was closed with a visit to four hamlets and seeing the development of each group in the weaving and agriculture/animal husbandry production process that has been carried out so far.
This activity is a series in “Women Empowerment” and will be carried out in the coming months with a different theme while evaluating the June 2025 program (Catfish Cultivation). See you in the next project.
