Bali Care Project
Empowerment for Gaining Access and Control to Economic, Political, Social and Cultural Resources for Poor and Disadvantaged Communities is a program to empower poor and marginalized communities to gain access and control over economic, political, social and cultural resources. Empowerment is aimed at improving the cultural prosperity of the community in an effort to reduce the structural poverty of two communities in Bali, namely Banjar Pengubengan Kauh and Lembongan Traditional Village.
This program is conducted since November 2011, and will end in April 2012. In general, the program is aimed at improving the cultural prosperity of marginalized groups. The main steps that need to be done in an effort to improve the cultural prosperity of one community group are:
Step 1. Know and understand the village resources, especially the potential that has been marginalized.
The introduction and understanding of the potential of village resources is undertaken to improve the capacity of communities to map out existing resources and problems. Furthermore, the community is invited to make a plan, how to manage the resources they have to solve the problems encountered.
Active role of target group is needed in this activity. Inactivity or inactivity can be used as an indicator of the group’s structural poverty level, especially in terms of poverty over access to political, social and cultural resources.
Step 2. Conduct training on the business line specified in the planning
Training is intended to introduce and understand the business field to be developed. The business sector is based on the sequence of potential resources, especially those that have not been managed optimally. This training can be done several times because it is technical.
Step 3. Conduct business management training on the business field to be developed
Business management is important to be able to manage the business sustainably. Important matters to be agreed upon are production and utilization of production plans, as well as business impacts for communities and the environment.
Step 4. Business group management training
This training is a continuation of business management training, which emphasizes management or group management. As much as possible, this training produces the Statutes / Bylaws of the group, as the basis for the implementation of the business.
The Articles of Association of the Group include such things as group name and address, establishment objectives, membership, organization and management, duties and responsibilities of management, decision-making, capital, business activities, capital loan provisions, financial management, residual proceeds, and group dissolution.
The most important thing that needs to be done before doing the four trainings is the socialization of the program to the entire village community or local banjar. This is intended to avoid any suspicions and conflicts that may arise from suspicion. However, socialization activities can also be carried out between planned trainings based on certain considerations. For example, the target community wants to prove in advance the real form of the program plan. This arises from the lack of balanced social relationships between the target group and other community members, especially with local leaders.
Further activities that are also necessary are monitoring and evaluation of activities that have been done. It is important to assess the success of the program, which is to increase the cultural and structural prosperity of the target community, in terms of access to and control over economic, political, social and cultural resources.