In 2007, the Japanese Government through the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia has supported local NGO in Aceh called Jaroe with grassroots grant for "The Project for Economic Empowerment through Handicraft Small Industry Development for Women Conflict Victims in Aceh Besar District, Aceh Province", worth USD 85,136 (date of contract: September 11, 2007). The main purposed of this grant is to support Livelihood of Women conflict victim in Aceh Besar District through local organization called Jaroe. With this grant aid Jaroe managed to provide embroidery training and life skilled in order to make handicraft product such as women hand bag, luggage, wallet, lap top case, etc. All of the product use Acehnese design. Jaroe also managed to establish and run three small production centers or workshops in three sub districts in Aceh Besar, which are Kuta Malaka sub district, Indrapuri sub district and Montasik sub district.

Training Activities

Mr. Dedek, Head of Jaroe organization, have long experienced in managing Acehnese handicraft business in Aceh. In his peak time managing his handicraft business he managed almost 80 people, mostly women. However his business was destroyed by recent conflict in Aceh as well as many of those women lost their main livelihood.

When applied for this grassroots grant aid Mr. Dedek once said that he wanted to restore the livelihood of many conflict victim women since he knew from his personal experience that many of them willing to work and had natural talent in sewing and embroidery but had no chance and very limited livelihood opportunities. He also expressed his confidence about his knowledge and experiences could be very useful in order to create the livelihood opportunities to those women.

Now after nine months after signing grant contract with the Embassy of Japan, Mr. Dedek has been able to establish three small home industry centers in three sub districts in Aceh Besar and one marketing store in Banda Aceh and already entered successfully national market to promote those women conflict victims product at national level. Jaroe managed to deliver handicraft training for 170 women conflict victims and most of them, around 120 women now can produce good quality product and got paid for every product they produce.

Ms. Marsunis, 35 years old, a widow and mother of two children in Lam Panah village of Indrapuri sub district has said, "I appreciate a lot for the good of Japanese people. Thanks to several trainings and assistance in the project, I start getting additional income of 150 thousand rupiah per week".

Ms. Irawati, 30 years old, a mother of three children in Teu Dayah village of Kuta Malaka sub-district expressed "I am really thankful for the assistance from Embassy of Japan in Indonesia and Jaroe’s program. In the program, I can directly start working after several trainings, at the same time; I even start earning money by selling products that I made. I feel the program and training I joined with the support of Embassy of Japan was quite different from other training that I joined before. Traditionally, women in this area have been able to find work only twice a year as a labor force in paddy field".

Their products now are already well known in Banda Aceh area and Jaroe often represents Aceh to national exhibition event such as INACRAFT exhibition held in Senayan Hall, Jakarta from May 25 to May 30, 2008 and Indonesia Culture Week also held in Senayan Hall, Jakarta from June 4 to June 8, 2008. From both exhibitions he managed revenue around 30 million Rupiah. While for many people this amount seems small but for Mr. Dedek and his women’s group that amount of money means a lot and can boost their confidence that their product were welcome in national market.

President Yudhoyono (center) and Madame Ani Yudhoyono (the second from left) are picking up one of the Jaroe's products, (INACRAFT 2008, Jakarta)	Mr. Dedek (left), the head of Jaroe Organization, selling Jaroe's products at the corner of Aceh booth. （INACRAFT 2008, Jakarta）

At the end, Mr. Dedek mentioned "I would like to express my deep gratitude toward Embassy of Japan for entrusting us to conduct the program to empower conflict-affected woman in Aceh Besar district for their livelihood improvement. But I still have lots of things to do. I still need to improve many things both in production and marketing stage so that the sustainability of the program would be assured. However, I believe that I have already done pretty good job such as creating opportunity for Jaroe’s group, opening up the market for them by using my old network".