They're working to empower village communities who are politically autonomous, economically self-reliant, and live by maintaining local wisdoms and adopting gender equity.

The vision of student activists, Lembaga Gemawan was officially established in 1999 with the aim to address localised social justice issues, and to foster social transformation by empowering local communities to have an active ‘voice’ in decisions relating to the social, political and economic aspects of their community.

In its infant stage, Gemawan’s programs focused on election monitoring and fostering democratic practices after the fall of Suharto’s Authoritarian rule in 1998. Since then, Gemawan has expanded the programmatic focus to incorporate areas aligned to the founders’ vision.

Vision

Our vision is economically self-reliant Coastal Communities, which are politically engaged, embody local culture and traditions and are gender equitable.

Mission 

Through community organising, they aim to empower marginalised coastal communities to understand and advocate for their individual and collective rights with natural resource management, while ensuring Government accountability and transparency. In doing so, communities will have better control of their natural resources, enabling them to foster an economically sustainable future, which is both culturally sensitive and gender equitable.

Objectives

Develop strong community organisations to promote peace and justice in West Kalimantan

Advocate for local governance reform via anti-corruption and good governance movement

Empower local communities to know their rights regarding natural resources and management

Promote gender equality through women’s empowerment, particularly economic empowerment

Increase Gemawan Institutes resources and capacity in order to efficiently and effectively respond to growing program demands

Key Activities

Community organising to develop strong, inclusive community groups. This strengthens local capacity with knowledge, skills and competencies to empower communities, while also providing a collective ‘voice’. This enables democratic decision-making based on collective and individual wants and needs at the community and local level

Strong inclusive community groups provide the platform to deliver educational programs, trainings and workshops about:

Socio-political issues;
Community based natural resource management;
Gender awareness training;
Good governance;
And provide the avenue for economic empowerment (in particular of women) by facilitating access to a fair market

Gemawan advocates for:

Participatory governance;
Anti-corruption;
Community based natural resource management