By: Hijrah Nasir

The role of women as drivers of village community empowerment has been widely practiced along with their increasingly strong participation in various fields of life. Women can be strong driving forces if given the role to take part in the community development process. This has been demonstrated by the Srikandi women's group in Ngarip Village, Ulubelu Sub-district, Tanggamus Regency, Lampung.

It all started with the desire of this group of women farmers (KWT), who graduated from the Organic Coffee Farming Field School held by WWF Indonesia in 2012, to produce ground coffee that they had been buying from other areas.

"Almost all farmers in Ngarip Village are coffee farmers, but so far we have always bought coffee from other areas. Therefore, this idea made us agree to form a Business Saving Group that we named Srikandi. Srikandi is a character in the shadow puppet show that symbolizes strong women. Our hope for this group is reflected in the name." Said Sri Wahyuni who is the Chairperson of KSU Srikandi.

The group was established on August 2, 2015 with 18 members. Currently, KSU Srikandi has 160 members consisting of 140 women and 20 men. This group has a vision to realize an independent and competitive socio-economic institution as a driver of an environmentally sound and sustainable rural economy. Currently, the Srikandi group has a cooperative legal entity with the name Srikandi Maju Bersama Producer Cooperative.

The group is engaged in the savings and loan business with total deposits reaching 256,312,000 Rupiah and loans since its establishment have reached 1,132,000,000 Rupiah. In addition, the group has a Srikandi ground coffee business unit that has been able to produce 1,382 kilograms of ground coffee per year, which is expected to increase to 1,800 kilograms in 2018.

Armed with the experience and knowledge gained through a series of training facilitated by WWF and other partners, among others: Barista Training in Bandar Lampung, Lampung Conservation Camp Exhibition, GEMASKOP Workshop in Tanggamus Regency, Worskop Socialization of Microfinance Institutions in Tanggamus, Rural Women Entrepreneurship Training in Yogyakarta, Pekan Raya Nusantara (PARARA) Exhibition in Jakarta, Intellectual Property Rights (HAKI) Training in Lampung Province, and Grant Fund Management Training in Bandar Lampung, currently Srikandi has been able to share her experience by becoming a facilitator for business groups in surrounding villages. Currently in Ulubelu Sub-district, 4 women's KSUs have been formed, including KSU Sumatra Sukamaju (64 members and 62 million savings), KSU Sumber Rezeki Datarajan (45 members and 124,320,000 savings), and KSU Mekar Sari Air Abang (23 members and 9.5 million savings). This is certainly an interesting thing because women's groups in Ngarip have been able to provide a domino effect for women from other villages to participate in building business groups in the context of economic development of rural communities.

On Saturday, January 27, 2018, KSU Srikandi held an Annual Member Meeting (AGM) at Ngarip Village Hall which was attended by the village government, management, WWF, Rumah Kolaborasi (RUKO), group members, and administrators from other KSU villages. This RAT is coupled with the distribution of SHU members.

"We as officials feel proud of KSU Srikandi because it has raised the image of Ngarip Village. We strive to continue to provide support for the achievement of KSU Srikandi's goals and hope that community creativity can be developed and managed sustainably and is expected to increase village competitiveness. The government is always ready to facilitate. As for village planning in 2018, a Village-Owned Enterprise (BUMDes) will be established in Ngarip which is expected to cooperate with KSU Srikandi." Said Rio Setiajid as the Head of Ngarip Village in his welcoming speech.

This women's group business is not without problems. They still face several obstacles such as lack of capital to buy raw materials, lack of professionals in terms of marketing, production, coffee quality, packing, bookkeeping, finance, and unorganized institutions. However, they feel that they have a great opportunity in developing their business in the future due to the availability of good raw materials, in this case coffee beans, as well as many partners who help with marketing and buying, such as WWF, RUKO, PGE, RA, and government agencies. In addition, they also recognize that one of the group's advantages is the taste of Srikandi coffee powder that is well known in the Ulubelu community, so they invite shops to become marketing agents for this coffee in Ulubelu Subdistrict.

Through this RAT, the board invited group members and partners to increase their role in marketing the Srikandi coffee unit to enlarge the scale of promotion. One member even suggested that each member buy coffee powder from Srikandi so that it could support the group's target of increasing coffee production. In this forum too, the presence of other village business groups can build cooperation and efforts to share knowledge for mutual progress.

KSU Srikandi's jargon that hopes the group as a unifying bond of the Ngarip Village community is proof that social capital is still strong and still maintained in this village. A series of training and mentoring held by WWF Indonesia and partners are expected to further strengthen it to build common ideals in an effort to preserve the forest around the village and realize the principles of sustainable economic development. This business group seeks to enhance the values of local wisdom and use sustainable agricultural systems to support sustainable coffee productivity, as well as utilize natural resources that have sustainable economic value. This is in line with WWF Indonesia's efforts to support the sustainable development of communities in the buffer villages of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.