Woman weaves better life for fellow villagers

Woman weaves better life for fellow villagers

By Lila Djamal

JAKARTA (Antara): Mountains, thunderstorms and other obstacles have not stopped Cornellia Rindung, a woven cloth entrepreneur from Pagal village, Manggarai regency in East Nusa Tenggara, from striving to improve the lives of women in her village.

The realization of her dreams led her to the State Palace earlier this month to receive the Upakarti, the government's highest award for small industry and craft businesses, from Vice President Try Sutrisno.

She started small in December 1990 with a loan she obtained from her own little shop that sells basic daily necessities. She planned to pay off her loan after the first products -- three tablecloths and 12 cushion covers made by local weavers -- had been sold.

This took longer than she had expected.

"It was understandable. Nobody knew me," the 46-year-old said here before the presentation of the Upakarti.

Six months later, the wife of the Manggarai Regent bought the items for Rp 100,000.

"I managed to sell my work by asking for help from a good friend of mine who is the wife of a local district chief." The sale gave her hope that the works would be noticed by visitors to the regent's house.

But she did not gain any profits for the next three years. All her funds and her time was spent on training her craftspeople, most of whom had basic elementary school educations or were illiterate.

Their limited knowledge of weaving had been handed down from parents and grandparents. "I had to accept their work even though the quality was not very good. Otherwise, they would go and I would not have any workers."

Gradually, she upgraded the poor quality goods into small souvenirs like hats and ties. Today, she has 77 workers in villages in the district of Sibal. Her business has production capacity of 15 pieces of songket ikat -- gold-embroidered woven cloth -- and a turnover of Rp 1 million per month.

Jewelry

Cornellia said production of a songket was time consuming as it took at least two weeks to complete each piece.

A more intricate design takes longer as it must be done precisely. A mistake means the woven cloth has to be unthreaded, or the cloth will be damaged.

Cornellia, wife of Police Corp. I. Ketut Darma and the mother of four, admitted she does not weave but makes the design. She creates a design upon the request of a customer, and chooses a weaver whose skills fit the requirements.

She travels to meet her weavers throughout the mountainous regency to place her work orders. "I often spend a whole day going up and down the mountains to meet them."

Small businesses often have problems with capital. Cornellia has Rp 5 million to develop her business but she said it was insufficient.

"I had a Rp 4 million loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia, but I found it very difficult to repay it. The loan had to be repaid in monthly installments over 18 months. I was told that if I paid each installment by the 15th of each month, I would get a bonus. I often had to pay after the 20th. I lost the bonus, but I could use the money for the business instead."

Cornellia said it had become more difficult to obtain loans from banks, and she had resorted to pawning her personal effects.

"I was too embarrassed to borrow money from an individual and there was no guarantee that I would get the loan anyway, so I sold all my jewelry."

Last year, someone suggested Cornellia obtain a soft loan from a state-owned company to allow her to increase her network of weavers. But no loan was forthcoming after she had presented three proposals.

"I had a headache every time I had to face people who came to me for work. It was not that I did not want to give them work, but to add more people would mean more capital."

Diversification

She wants to diversify her products from just songket ikat, intending to produce other end products from the fabric, like bags and hats which have good market prospects.

Another idea is to apply the design on plain textile. "This will result in a cheaper priced product without losing the Manggarai distinctive features," she said.

Again, putting the grand designs into effect is not that easy. Modern machines to saw the applique are needed, but traditional weaving mill and looms are still in use in her area. "Once again, the obstacle is the capital," she said.

There are two types of songket ikat -- songket baju, or pili, and houlung, which has cross-stitch patterns. During harvest times, the fabric can be sold for around Rp 60,000 and Rp 75,000 each, but the price can drop to between Rp 40,000 and Rp 50,000.

Cornellia has experienced business ups and downs, but somehow she has always survived. She recounted how one day she had tried to drop off several orders for payment, but a heavy thunderstorm made the road impassable. She had no money to pay the weavers. Bewildered, she stopped at the house of a customer she had not seen for a long time.

"As I approached the door, this customer welcomed me and was very happy. It turned out she had been hoping to see me. Thank God, she bought three pieces.

"My sadness was replaced by happiness, and my hands trembled even though I was only receiving Rp 217,000. Normally I would not feel any different even when I received Rp 4 million."

Cornellia was modest about the Upakarti honor. "I was really touched and did not know what to say when I was told that I got the award."

She acknowledged the support of the Provincial Family Welfare Center, the regency, the district, the head of the branches and subbranches of the association of policemen's wives, Bhayangkari, and local offices of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Industry.

Whatever twists and turns she faces, Cornellia will continue to climb mountains to reach her weavers and keep her business running. After all, she knows scores of workers depend on her.