Ratna Refida

Ratna Refida has created a process for providing community based housing for the poor in rural areas. Her aim is to create rural settlements that are adequately supportive to residents so that they will feel less need to migrate to cities. These rural settlements are designed to provide housing, a healthy environment for children, and income generation opportunities for the families.

There are some housing services already provided for the urban poor, through government low cost housing schemes and nongovernmental community based housing programs, but no such schemes have been developed for rural communities. Ratna Refida is working to create human settlements where people can raise their children in an environment where they sense a future for themselves and their children. While the government's focus in its development of rural areas has been on the creation of infrastructure such as electrical grids and roads, Ratna focuses upon the total human settlement, of which housing is a key component. One of her breakthroughs was her development of an acceptable model for the financial mechanisms for housing loans to rural communities. In addition to providing money for housing construction, this new model also allows for repayment of the loan on a schedule that is tailored to the seasonal nature of rural work and incomes.

Modernization has not improved living conditions for everyone in Indonesia. There is still a wide gap between the few who benefit greatly and the many who benefit very little from the new technologies and changing socioeconomic structures. In urban areas there is the increasing problem of city slums, and in village and urban fringe areas, where most of the population lives, there is little improvement in housing facilities. In villages all over the country, family groups of the rural poor continue to live in extremely simple and flimsy structures made of cheap materials, with no clean water or sanitation facilities. This contributes to the rural exodus to the cities, as people flock there to seek employment and better living conditions. Government efforts to improve the lives of rural people have focused on infrastructure alone. Development has reached rural areas in the form of improved roads and access to electricity, but such physical infrastructure developments benefit the relatively rich rather than the poorer majority. The human element of settlement has been neglected. Ratna believes settlement means housing, people, environment, and incomes; it is insufficient to invest in infrastructure alone. The rural poor have an urgent need for decent housing that is provided in such a way that it forms the basis for improvements in family life, such as children's health and education, opportunities for women to improve household incomes, and strengthened community ties and potentials. There needs to be a vision of hope for the future - one that communities can believe in. Rural settlements must be developed so that people no longer feel the need to move away and so that they can even attract new people.
A major stumbling block is that there are no links between small, poor, rural communities and the existing financial mechanisms, to allow investment to be made in housing in rural areas. The government housing loan bank (BTN) is only geared to meet the needs of low-income people in urban areas, as it is based on the applicant having a full-time job and a minimum salary collected at regular intervals. The government program therefore does not reach the farming and fishing communities of the nation where incomes fluctuate with crops and catches. There are some nongovernmental programs working on community based housing projects, but they are all located in urban areas.

Ratna decided to implement her idea in 1994 in one community, which would then serve as a pilot project for the formulation of detailed strategies. The place is called Darek, and it is located in central Lombok, where conditions are dry and the farmers are poor. She chose this location as she had connections there through an alternative education program, and there was a strong felt need for settlement improvement. She has applied the same criteria to other site selections. Ratna has started another community based housing project in a coastal location in south-east Lombok - a fishing community where another nongovernmental organization is working on appropriate technology with the fishermen. She has also begun social preparation at a site in west Lombok, where she has had contact with the women on gender issues related to the pottery handicraft industry. The presence of other programs has proved to be helpful in ensuring that motivation levels are high. Ratna's organization acts as the partner and adviser for the community. In Darek, Ratna had to put a great deal of effort into preparation: both social preparation within the community and working with government and private bodies to get the necessary permits, materials, and support. This stage took two years, as there were problems at every stage with the first project. She involved the community in all stages of the project as full participants. The result is the construction of a neat and well-functioning complex on a small hill in which the natural rocky location has been turned to advantage in the landscaping. The community chose the site, a place far enough away from the main road to be suitable for the water buffalo owners. There are 54 houses, all with cement floors, brick lower walls, bamboo matting upper walls, tiled roofs, two main rooms, outside kitchen facilities, and communal clean water and sanitation facilities. Paved pathways wind between the houses and the house gardens, and there is a mosque and a communal meeting place. Lombok villages always have a communal meeting placea ¾raised platform structure, roofed over and open sided, which functions as a place for relaxation as well as formal gatherings. The Darek settlement has become a local tourist site, as other villagers like to visit it on Sundays just to enjoy its neat, attractive environment.
The key to the success of the project is that Ratna has developed the necessary financial mechanisms. The government housing loan bank (BTN) finally agreed to some policy adjustments to accommodate rural conditions. It had never before considered loans for people whose incomes depend on agriculture or fishing. The BTN housing loans involve a credit system known as Kredit Triguna (three-way credit), which covers land acquisition, house construction, and working capital to help loan repayment. Ratna traveled to Jakarta to meet senior officials in order to reach an agreement on two key points: that credit will be given so long as there is a consultant, such as her organization, to channel loans to the rural community members, and that repayment schedules can be adjusted from a fixed monthly basis to a quarterly basis to accommodate the farmers' income patterns. The 32 families who chose to use the capital for the purchase of two water buffalo each borrowed Rupiah (Rp) 3.7 million (US $264 in July,1998), and the 22 families who chose to use the capital for crop improvement (seeds, fertilizer) borrowed Rp 3.5 million each (US $250). This is being repaid at US $8/quarter, the equivalent of the normal US $3/month for urban borrowers. Ratna helped the community to organize an additional monthly contribution to a "solidarity fund" to cover anyone who may have difficulty with a payment. They will all complete repayment in seven and a half years, and they were very proud when officials from government housing loan bank and the Minister of Housing attended the opening in August 1996. Ratna has made her organization self-sustaining by incorporating a small percentage from the amount that is loaned to the rural communities to cover the costs of her organization.
Ratna continues to work with the community at Darek to achieve the "whole settlement" ideal. There have been positive changes in attitudes, opportunities, and income levels. The community is socially more compact, leadership skills have been developed, and there is evidence of community development as members are now more aware of what they can achieve by working together. They are discussing ways to work together to make extra income during times when they are unable to do farm work, and there are plans to organize a playgroup for the many young children. A number of the women have opened warungs (food stalls) in front of their houses. It is clearly evident that the community has a pride of place and more confidence to plan better lives for their children.
Darek has been a test case for Ratna's idea; she has used it to train two people as "development consultants," who are now implementing the project at the second site. This is one of Ratna's strategies for spreading the idea - two people are to be trained on each project to work as implementers at new sites. She envisions having a team of consultants, which will be linked with an association to offer ongoing training and to ensure high standards. There has been much interest in the Darek settlement by government bodies and other nongovernmental organizations, and Ratna has taken every opportunity to attend seminars, publish articles, and invite other nongovernmental organizations to tell them about her ideas and the financial and technical solutions she has devised.

Ratna was born in Surabaya and is the seventh child in a large family of eleven children. She learned valuable lessons from her family life as everyone always helped each other, and, although they were not very well off, she remembers that her father insisted on strong values. She moved to Mataram in Lombok to attend senior high school as one of her older brothers was working there and invited her to join him. Ratna wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, influenced by her activities in volunteering at orphanages over many years. Instead, she studied economics in university, reasoning that she would get a good job and then have enough money to help disadvantaged children. She graduated in Economic Management; when she was doing her final paper in 1986 she worked on a community development project with the Dutch aid organization, Hivos. Having long held concerns about issues of poverty and injustice, she started her own community development group called Nature's Bud, in 1988, with some friends. This organization focuses on alternative education, with the aim of assisting children in villages and remote places to overcome poverty. Ratna came to see that children's problems are wider than just education, and that there is a connection between a good living environment and education. The Nature's Bud program is still going well and now also helps street children. Ratna is still a member, but in 1993 she branched out on her own and established the Foundation for People's Settlement (YKPR), in order to implement the ideas about settlement that she had come to believe in. Many people were very skeptical about her plans, and one government official even told her that she could cut off his ear if she made it work. She has now gained government recognition for her first settlement project and is regularly invited to join national seminars to tell others about her ideas and strategies. Her degree in economics has served her well. She has set a pattern of social innovations and creation of new organizations. Ratna is married and has one young son. They have three other "children," however-young people they have invited into their home and have helped with education. People have commented with admiration that Ratna works so hard to help others to obtain their own homes while she continues to live modestly in a rented house. She is fully committed to the spread of her idea.