Summary
Yayasan Kristen Untuk Kesehatan Umum has a vision of health services based on love for healing that are holistic, quality, integrated, growing, and affordable to the wider community. YAKKUM has an emergency unit (YEU), established in 2001 with the mandate of delivering inclusive emergency responses, including community participation in needs assessment and aid distribution. YEU works to build community resilience through community led disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. In 2017, YEU was facilitating more than 250 villages and partnering with more than 350 community-based organizations across Indonesia. Through participatory processes, older people’s groups identify the locations most prone to natural disasters and work with the community but also local government to identify specific needs and help coordinate appropriate response, led by community or government. Services provided range from home-based health advice to disaster response and mitigation. Every month the group collects garden yields from members, to sell. The money goes towards a community health fund and can be used by communities to seek treatment or buy medicine. When community funds cannot be used, other approaches are adopted and the groups will try to link people to government services or to NGOs. Some older people’s groups are women only and all are trained in basic health assessment but also advocacy. Members of these groups typically feel empowered and valued and act as role models for other members of the community but also local service providers and authorities who seek their advice and information.
Planning and Implementation
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What was the challenge you were trying to address?
The challenge was the lack of Government services in remote areas and in particular for older people calling for more self-help activities but also collaboration with local service providers and advocacy with government.
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Who were you trying to impact?
Older people in general, Older people with vulnerabilities
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What sectors were you targeting?
Education, Health, Social protection
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Who else was involved?
Government, Civil Society Organization, Older People's Association
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How did older people participate?
Older people were part of the process at multiple or all stages
Lessons learned
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Please describe how collaboration worked in your initiative.
YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) has been working with community groups in Central Java Province since 2013 following the Mount Merapi eruption. Local groups were initially established as groups for women of all ages in a number of locations. In March 2015 YEU began working with HelpAge International and decided to broaden these groups to include older women and men in response to the increasing numbers of older people among the population who are not supported by government or other stakeholders.
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What was the impact of your initiative on older people, their families, and/or their communities?
Older people are more active and involved in their communities. They are happy about this and the skills they have learned. Before, they had limited information about support and assistance, but now they are informed and are able to be agents of change. Older people feel more valued and have a greater sense of dignity as a result. They also report that their health and quality of life has improved. By attending meetings, home visits or home care, older people have the space and opportunity to speak and be heard. The data collected by older people has also given greater visibility to the issues many in the community face. Before this, much data related to older people was incomplete, did not exist or was ignored. Older people are now often approached by local government units to provide support, information or to participate in meetings. The groups also hold their own meetings that government workers are invited to attend so that older people can speak to them, raise issues they are facing and seek responses. The links and relationships that have been established between the older people, the groups, government and services providers have also led to continued engagement beyond the life of the project. The older people who have participated are keen to support and facilitate others to engage and others are keen to join because they can see the value to those involved and of the engagement more broadly.
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What issues did you face, and how did you address them?
There were a number of older people who were reluctant to join because they felt they were too old to participate in these kind of activities. Members of the women's group began by approaching those who were involved with or known by those within the community Integrated Health Post program for the elderly. A number of the women’s group members are also health carers and so know many older people personally. This made it easier to convince older people to join the groups. The volunteers are a mix of ages and there is a higher proportion of women among them. Men were hesitant to join at first but their participation has increased as the project has gone on and they have seen the benefits of the project on other participants’ lives.
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What lessons did you learn from implementing this initiative?
Throughout this work, YEU ensures that their role is always as a facilitator; they are not there to speak on behalf of older people but to support older to speak for themselves. This is critical to ensure ownership of the activity and the engagement of people in the groups beyond the life of the project.
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Do you have any other reflections you would like to share?
When selecting members for the training, the groups consider who is willing to learn and who is willing to give their time after the training.