"I am ready to take action"

Sri Sri, 49 years old, is a leader of a homeworkers’ group in Mojokerto, East Java Province of Indonesia, and one of the 22 participants of a study tour to Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a membership-based organization, in Ahmedabad, India, organized by the ILO-MAMPU Project in collaboration with SEWA in September 2014. ILO-MAMPU is a project aiming to improve women’s access to employment and decent work in Indonesia, funded by the Government of Australia.

“After learning the experiences of women homeworkers and SEWA in India, I became confident to manage the group and I was ready to take actions,” she said. She shared that she had received training on working as a group such as social solidarity economy, but she had not been able to implement what she had learned as she had not known how. However, what she saw in India gave an opportunity for her to better comprehend the key messages from the training to an extent that she felt she was able to implement them in her life.

She now has a clearer vision on managing the group and she can determine the priority of group members and encourage the group members to work together to address the priority. Currently, the priority of the group is to get an alternative source of income so that they can increase their income for better livelihood. In order to address the group priority, the group started making various embroidery products, in addition to the work of sewing house clothes as homeworkers.

“We now find markets as a group, produce as a group, and sell as a group.” said Sri, adding that it is better to work as a group because we can help each other.

Her group currently has 15 members and the members share the profits from selling their own products while keeping a small amount for the group as a capital to develop new products. She shared that maintaining a group is a challenge, but she hoped to continue making progress in strengthening the group to improve the livelihood of the group members.