"‘Aluh kilen kagantung mamanting, manjatu ka petak kea'
"No matter how high he throws, it will always fall to the ground."
It was a piece of wisdom that an elder gave me when I was pursuing my bachelor's degree a few years ago, which meant, "no matter how far we go, one day we should come back to our village".
I still clearly remember the elder's longing eyes and hoarse voice when he shared his fear that our village might turn into ' ngaleka' or 'unhabitat village' if all the young people never returned to their village. His story hit me hard with the fact that, nowadays, many ancient rural villages in Kalimantan are now solely inhabited by old people or have truly become villages without inhabitants.
I personally believe that young people who get the privilege to spread their wings and study in another city have an obligation to return to their village and build their community using the modern knowledge and skills they have gained. Thru the Youth Act movement, our team always encourages and empowers local youth to return and give back to their community. And this year, we aim to rally young people in Palangka Raya city and Talekoi village to work together to develop Talekoi village. We plan to build libraries to improve children's literacy, develop traditional dance and music studios, and help provide alternative sources of income thru agroforestry programs.
Alert of catastrophic flooding in Kalimantan
It is crystal clear in our memory how the big floods that hit Kalimantan last year submerged numerous villages, destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and forced millions of people to become refugees. The flood disaster is coming back to haunt Kalimantan Island. For almost two weeks, heavy rains have been pouring down nonstop. The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) have issued a warning of catastrophic flooding because the month of February will be the peak of the rainy season.
We do not want to be petrified by trauma and dread in the face of natural disasters. As the guardian of our land, we'll continue to stand on the front lines and do whatever we can to protect our homeland and our people.
Weaving a hope of restoring Kalimantan Forest by germinating native tree species
We are delighted to share that we will collaborate with WEA to restore the degraded burned forest by planting Borneo native tree species in two areas in Central Kalimantan. The two ares are in Tangkiling, Palangka Raya city, and Talekoi Village, South Barito. This is also our grassroots initiative to protect endangered native tree species and provide economic benefit for the local communities through sustainable agroforestry.
There's a lot of things to be done and goals to pursue. One thing we know for sure, we cannot do this alone. We need you to achieve this. Together, we will make a change that we are longing for.
In gratitude,
Sumarni Laman