Hera Diani, Jakarta – Women's crisis centers in Indonesia are in dire need of financial support, say women's rights activists.
The National Commission on Violence Against Women said there were 215 institutions in Indonesia that dealt with at least 20,391 cases of violence against women in 2005, including 59 crisis centers scattered among 20 provinces across the country, which handled around 97 cases a year.
The institutions run on highly limited resources and are often in debt, although they work with volunteers who provide accommodation for victims.
Local governments and funding agencies give little in the way of money, but the National Commission on Violence Against Women launched a fund-raising and grant program called Pundi Perempuan in 2003.
The program is managed by the Indonesian Social Foundation for Humanity (YSKI), a philanthropic institution, and has so far supported 19 crisis centers in Medan, North Sumatra, Bengkulu and Palembang in South Sumatra, Jakarta, Bandung, Purwokerto in Central Java and East Nusa Tenggara.
"We've been working with corporations and the media. Our role is mainly to open the access of funds to crisis centers," said spokeswoman Ratna Fitriani at a discussion hosted by the commission here Monday.
She added that the current money available was only enough to finance six crisis centers annually. Since 2003 the commission has collected around Rp 321 million (US$34,9777) from several sources. "Twenty percent of the money has been saved in a trust fund, which has so far reached Rp 90 million," said Tasnin Yusuf from YSIK.
YSKI central board member Anik Wusari said charity activities to support women affected by violence were still a new thing in Indonesia.
"Other non-governmental organizations do not dare to work with corporate or private funds. We've also been criticized for capitalizing the issue of human rights by collaborating with corporations. But this is to help women, so there is nothing wrong with it," she said.
People still have little trust in philanthropic groups aiming to help women and instead preferred to donate money straight to the victims, the discussion was told.
"The problem with philanthropy for women is that the output is intangible. It's not like giving money to poor people. The commission needs to push for campaigns to familiarize them with this issue," said Jollyza Marvelyn Tobing from the Philanthropy Strengthening Initiative.
There was a need for more public accountability, as well as partnership and networking in developing philanthropy for women, the discussion concluded.
"In this era of regional autonomy, we must approach regional administrations because even a village can have billions in their budget. We need to ask them for gender budgeting, so that the administrations will allocate funds for women," said Hadi Pratomo, a physician and activist from the Budi Kemuliaan social organization.
Another potential was Islamic philanthropy, the group said, which according to a recent study raises over Rp 1 trillion a year but is yet to be managed professionally.
Indonesians still prefer to contribute their money through religious organizations. Speakers at the discussion said that religious philanthropy had to be made more productive and beneficial.