Susy Katipana lifts NTT's poor

Susy Katipana lifts NTT's poor

P.J. Leo, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur

Susy MD Katipana did not get the honorific title Pendekar Dari
Timur (The Heroine from the East) for nothing. Through her
Yayasan Womintra (Women in Transition Foundation), she literally
brings light to many villages in East Nusa Tenggara.

"NTT's geography and topography and the people's low
purchasing power have put electricity out of reach for most
villagers. Womintra finds a solution to bring electricity to
villages by using solar power," she said.

Once electricity enters a village, life begins to change and
villagers have greater opportunities to improve their standards
of living, she contended.

Born in Kupang 50 years ago, Susy has dedicated most of her
adult life for the betterment of villagers' living standards. Her
particular attention is on women and children and in 2000 Kartini
women's magazine gave her the title Pendekar Dari Timur in
recognition of her work.

In 2000 she received the ASEAN Best Executive Award for her
role in development programs. During an assignment with The
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Susy was awarded the
Presidential Citation from UNICEF-New York for her outstanding
contribution and dedication to women and children in Indonesia.

But it is through Yayasan Womintra that Susy is best known by
the people in NTT. The Kupang-based foundation focuses on
empowering village communities in cooperation with international
and local social institutions, the NTT administration and the
Office of the State Minister for the Acceleration of Development
in Eastern Indonesia.

Susy and her staff at Womintra focus on efforts to improve the
living standards of village communities. In NTT, village life
means poverty, a condition wherein children lead a hardscrabble
existence. In the province, children help with various chores,
such as fetching water or collecting firewood. It takes great
effort to lift the villagers out of such a situation.

Susy's concern for and involvement in empowering villagers
were a legacy of her parents' social activities. Raised in a
family who are devoted to the welfare of others, Susy began her
social activities as a teacher at Nusa Cendana University in
Kupang in 1978.

The fourth of 13 siblings, Susy always told her students that
being a teacher or educator was not restricted to the classroom.

"A teacher or educator can be anywhere," said Susy, who
aspired to be a teacher even as a child.

A graduate of the Bandung Teachers Training Institute (IKIP),
Susy loves rural life so much she often takes her urban students
to villages, for which she often hears people sneer, "What kind
of scholar takes university students to villages."

Susy spent five years dedicating her life to the teaching
profession before she focused on her social activities.

Susy's interest in the lives of rural people became even
stronger upon her return from studying in Calcutta, India, in
1985, when she was working for CARE International. During her
spare time she volunteered for three months at Mother Teresa's,
churches and convalescent homes where she helped feed disabled
children and dying people.

"It was an amazing experience for me to be able to meet Mother
Teresa and to see how she organized work to help the castaway,
the dying and disabled," she recalled. "I never dreamed of seeing
Mother Teresa. I first knew about Mother Teresa when I was in
Java through books, TV and radio. NTT then did not have access to
that kind of information."

Her parents were her role model.

"I watched how my mother, an active social worker at church,
found joy through her work by providing books on health and
explaining the meaning of healthy living to the population. This
she did for 20 years until her eyes betrayed her. And my father,
too, who devoted his life for those people who were sidelined.
Father always told us to serve others no matter where we are,"
said Susy.

Inspired by her parents' special devotion to the socially
disabled, Susy, who majored in infant and maternal health, then
set up in 1978, the Yayasan Jacob (Jacob Foundation). The
foundation helped rehabilitate and provide facilities for
disabled children in the province as well as assistance in
finding schools that could accommodate their physical and mental
needs.

"There is a general lack of awareness of the importance of
hygiene and routine health checkups. Pregnant mothers and infants
do not have routine health checkups and all these have resulted
in the high birth rate of disabled children. This in turn hampers
efforts to create a productive and high quality future
generation," she said.

Her social activities then took her to various international
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including with CARE
International, CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency),
JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), GTZ (Deutsche
Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit) and UNICEF.

She was UNICEF's chief representative for NTT and East Timor
until the latter voted for independence in 1999.

It was while she was working for UNICEF that Susy met her
future husband, Clauss Dauselt, a German who was stationed in
Kupang for a German-Indonesia bilateral program.

"We met often to discuss various programs and often Clauss
would accompany me on my field work. I grew fond of him and felt
we had a lot of things in common," she said with a smile.

In 1997, she changed Yayasan Jacob into Yayasan Womintra
(Women in Transition Foundation). Womintra's activities extend
beyond NTT and reach many other parts of eastern Indonesia.

Susy changed Yayasan Jacob into Womintra because she saw a lot
of violence, not just physical, but also psychological violence
against women. Besides, there were many government programs aimed
at helping women, but they mostly focused on the physical
aspects. For example, NTT has a high maternal and infant
mortality rates, second in Indonesia after neighboring West Nusa
Tenggara, but government programs do not address the problem.

"Yayasan Womintra tries to involve women in every aspect of
development," said the mother of one child. "Despite greater
women's involvement, men remain dominant in every area of
development due to the traditional approach. In NTT, women remain
in second position when it comes to decision-making."

"There have been demands for women to occupy positions in the
executive body, but as soon as they get there, they don't get
enough support," said Susy, a recipient of the Women
International Award 2000 for Community Development Program
Design.

"Take President Megawati Soekarnoputri. We all know
her opponents accepted her as president only when the state was
in a critical situation. Ever since, they have not given her fair
credit for her work," she added.