Discussion in Pariaman: "Aligning the roles of Religious and Tribal Institutions in the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Period”

Those of you who follow the news pages on www.humanitarianforum.org will have read about the work we're doing in Padang to combat the clashes between NGOs and local communities. We're continuing this work in West Sumatera, where the relationships between local communities and INGOs have suffered from misunderstandings.

The people of West Sumatera are by and large deeply religious people. Sumatera Barat’s culture is influenced by Islamic doctrine and the majority of groups in that province are Muslim. Sumatera Barat civilians are generally thought of as conservative in nature when it comes to religion related issues. But as the period of rehabilitation and reconstruction progresses, there has been rising conflict between local people and humanitarian agencies working in the area.

Once the citizens of Sumatera Barat suspected some international NGOs of attempting to persuade earthquake victims to change their religion, it began to hinder cooperation with International NGOs, and in some villages, even led to the expulsion of the organisations in question. As a result, the remaining national and international organisations have had to work out new programs and activities, with the added struggle of working with a very cool and defensive response from the people of West Sumatera.

In West Sumatra itself, Community leaders have a strong influence to mobilize the public. We believe they have a very big role to play, both in society generally and in terms of reconstruction programmes. They are better placed than any other actor to provide the community with information disaster risk reduction. So it's vitally important that they're given the understanding and knowledge about the dangers of disaster and disaster risk reduction, to be submitted to the public.

So, how can we bring community leaders together with NGOs, so West Sumatera can recover and rebuild as quickly and efficiently as possible?

Well, we've been working on just that. HFI, in cooperation with other organisations such as Yayasan Tangul Bencana Indonesia (YTBI), World Vision, Muhammadiyah, and Dompet Dhuafa, held meetings and workshops to mediate with every stakeholder - NGOs, community leaders, local government and local religious leaders.

Through these meetings we're working to unite every party involved in rehabilitation and reconstruction and to accelerate the recovery of West Sumatera without any obstacles.

In addition to conflict resolution forums, our workshops and discussions are also intended to train community leaders and local governments in disaster risk reduction. West Sumatra is the area adjacent to the source of disaster. Many experts confirm that West Sumatra has a high potential for Earthquake and tsunami attacks.

This workshop is the third time Workshop held by the HFI in West Sumatra with the same theme. Previous similar workshops held in the city of Padang and the City Pariaman. Read more about our work here