Microfinance
The city of Makassar in Southern Sulawesi collects its rubbish and takes it to an area on the outskirts which over the past twenty years has grown into a mountain of rubbish, we have come to call it 'Trash Mountain'. It stands about 8 stories high and is the width of about 12 football fields as is 'home' to the poorest of the poor. An estimated 1000 people live in the surrounding villages and make a living from the dump site by collecting plastics, paper and glass which they sell on to the recycling companies. It's tough work and there are so many of them that the day is split into three shifts; 6am-12 noon, 12 noon to 6pm, and 6pm to 6am. On any one shift there are hundreds of people including children from as young as 2 sifting through the rubbish.
Many of the families who work here live in wooden houses/shacks in village areas beside the dump. It is dirty, smelly and full of disease and these families earn just enough to feed themselves and their families each day.
As Indonesia is in the throws of its industrial revolution there is mass migration from the country areas to the cities and Makassar is no exception. But despite the belief that there will be jobs in the cities the sheer number of migrants mean that many, having spent all their money on the journey, find themselves trapped in even greater poverty than that which they experienced in the country.
These families, who are 'bottom of the pecking order' in the new inner city areas become the poorest of the poor and on Trash Mountain that means they end up living on top of the actual dump as they haven't enough money to pay the year's rent for a house beside it. They make shelters out of corrugated iron and canvas but it does little to protect them from the monsoon rains and the flooding of sewage and chemicals from the rotting rubbish.
This year our team will be helping some of these families to move into better accommodation by granting micro-loans. The loan of £160/$240 pays the rent for one year in a house beside the dump and the families then work to repay the loan and save for the following year's rent.
As the money is repaid, it gets reinvested and pays for the rent for another family. Living in better accommodation helps to prevent them from getting sick and helps them to start to climb out of the poverty trap. A Condition of the loan is that the children attend the Slum School that Sacred Childhoods runs there three times a week and there the children receive medical treatments and healthy meals as well as a basic education.
