Capital Growth
The Asian economic crisis of 1997 hit many Indonesian families hard. Rokilah’s family was no exception. Her husband’s redundancy put enormous strain on family finances and made them entirely dependent on her meagre earnings from the small shop she operated at the front of their five-by-four-metre house.
Then, in mid-1999 Rokilah heard of a program run by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA). It was tailored for women, especially those already running a small business, with a dream and drive to expand it.
Eagerly Rokilah joined with a small group of interested women and listened as an ADRA development officer explained the program. She was excited at what she heard: local women would be trained in setting up a cooperative, encouraged to save and, from their savings, lend money to other women for the further development of their businesses. In turn, these women would be able to save money, enabling more women to borrow.
This was something they would manage and run themselves to help members of their own community; they would be independent. To help get the program started, ADRA would provide the initial loan capital to enable women to develop their businesses so they would be in a position to then save money within their cooperative and thereby establish funds for future loans.
Rokilah attended training programs and took up her first ADRA-sponsored loan of Rp200,000 ($A40) in August 1999. This enabled her to continue in her business, but it didn’t increase her profitability. In December of the same year she took a further Rp500,000 ($A100) loan. Following this injection, her business expanded and her profit increased. Over the next 18 months Rokilah took further loans of increasing amounts, allowing her business to expand further, including a second business as a food seller. She has also been able to add a second storey to her small house. This not only allows more space for her family, but also accommodates her expanding business.
Over this period she has been faithful in her repayments and saved money with the local cooperative.
Rokilah is grateful to ADRA for providing her with this opportunity to better support her family. Although she has had much success, she still has a dream and other goals to achieve. Her ambition is to save enough money to buy a motorcycle for use as a taxi, to better provide for her family in the future.
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