Lilis Suryani markets her snacks under the name “Simananam”, which means ‘delicious’. She has now increased their order to between 200-400 packs a month.

ILO NEWS (Mentawai Islands) – Lilis Suryani can remember the exact moment she knew she could call herself “an entrepreneur”. It was when the famous Indonesian snack store “Shirley” placed its first order for her taro chips, six months ago.

“I could not believe it! All my hard work building the business [had] paid off,” she recalls.

The achievement was even more impressive because Suryani lives on the remote Mentawai islands, off the southern coast of Indonesia’s West Sumatra, whereas Shirley is in the Western Sumatra capital, Padang, almost 250 kilometers away, across dirt roads and the choppy Mentawai Strait.

The journey from Bulasat village, where she lives, takes four hours by car on dirt roads, followed by 14 hours on a once-a-week ferry. But this did not prevent the reputation of her bag of snacks from travelling that distance – making them the first processed food products from the Mentawais to break into Padang city’s market.

Since then, the 23-year-old entrepreneur hasn’t looked back. She markets her snacks under the name “Simananam”, which means ‘delicious’ in the local Mentawai language, and customers clearly agree. Shirley has now increased their order to between 200-400 packs a month, which she sells at between 5,000 IDR (USD 0.50), and 10,000 IDR (USD 1) a pack, according to size.

Challenges

All entrepreneurs overcome challenges, but this woman has beaten more than most. When she left senior high school, her plans were to work with her family on their farm. But then, on 25 October 2010 a 7.7 magnitude earthquake brought a tsunami to the Mentawai Islands that caused more than 117 billion IDR (USD 11.8 million) of destruction. More than 400 people were killed and another 20,000 displaced, including Suryani, her parents and her younger sister.

When I heard about this training programme, I quickly grabbed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Suryani was devastated when she and her family had to leave their farm, livelihood and income and evacuate to higher ground. But then she got a break. She heard about a training programme being offered by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of the Mentawai Islands Livelihood Recovery Programme, funded by New Zealand Aid.

“When I heard about this training programme, I quickly grabbed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity although I knew nothing about light meals production,” says Suryani. She knew no-one in her community was currently making and selling snack foods, so she saw not only a business idea and a way to develop her own skills and knowledge but also an opportunity to help her friends and neighbours.

From 100 candidates, Suryani was one of 30 tsunami-affected young people from the Mentawai Islands of South Pagai and North Pagai to be selected. Together with nine others, she went to Padang University Training Centre to take a two-week vocational course in making light meals. The other 20 Mentawai students learned about motorbike repairs and furniture making.

Business training

But Suryani’s progress didn’t stop there. To ensure the trainees would also be able to start and run their own businesses, she and the other women in her group received further support from the ILO on starting-up and running a business, as well as packaging, branding and marketing their new products.

The ILO’s livelihood recovery activities focus on the development of management and business skills, including training on micro-enterprise development, marketing and post-production processing.

Lilis and the other women in her group have received further training in order to encourage more people to start their own businesses.

“The training uses the ILO’s '4 in 1' training methodology, combining skills surveys, competency-based training, certification of competencies and post-training support,” explains Lucky F. Lumingkewas, the ILO’s National Project Officer for the Mentawai Livelihood Recovery Programme.

“However, apart from the support and job training, the most important element is the motivation and devotion of the trainees. Lilis’s motivation and enthusiasm were remarkable. She refused to give up, no matter what,” he adds.

It’s no surprise to her former trainer that, fired by her success in Padang, Suryani and her group of ten local women are now marketing to other stores in the regional capital as well as in the Mentawai capital city of Tua Pejat. They now produce 600-1000 packs of taro chips every month, and Suryani also plans to increase this productivity level and recruit more women in her village to join the business.

“The tsunami has changed my life for the better,” she says. “I never dreamt of myself becoming an entrepreneur.”

It is hoped that the ILO livelihood recovery model will be replicated and scaled-up."

The ILO is also working to strengthen local microfinance institutions in Mentawai so that they can provide small loans to productive groups in surrounding villages.

“It is hoped that the ILO livelihood recovery model will be replicated and scaled-up by the Mentawai district government, West Sumatra provincial government and the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB),” Lumingkewas says.

The Mentawai Islands are a chain of more than seventy islands and islets off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Mentawai Islands Livelihood Recovery Programme is a joint programme of the ILO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Development Programme