Indonesia, in common with much of the world, is facing both a health and economic crisis from Covid-19. As with any disaster, vulnerable groups are the ones hardest hit. SEEDS, working with local partners, has already been working in coastal communities to strengthen their livelihoods through education, entrepreneurship, and environmental programs. These programs were designed to make households resilient to shocks but the scale of the COVID-19 ‘shock’ is far beyond their capacity to cope. This is why those long-term programs have been ‘put on ice’ while we support coastal communities in surviving the COVID-19 storm.
Practically this meant selecting two of the most isolated coastal communities that we have previously worked with and that contain high proportions of residents who live in poverty or are at risk of falling into poverty. Working together with local leadership and the police force, SEEDS partners wearing PPE distributed ‘basic needs’ (rice, instant noodles, cooking oil and soap) packages to families to help them get through this emergency. More than 400 families have so far received aid packages.
Restrictions on movements continue in West Sumatra so we were grateful to be able to distribute the aid smoothly. Our local partner, the Perahu Nusantara Foundation, is already making plans for a comprehensive needs survey in other coastal communities when restrictions begin to ease. We anticipate that one of the key needs will be providing business support to small cottage industries that have been decimated by the drop in tourism in this area.