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.