Sri Bungo (21 years old), is one of the female cadres from the Suku Anak Dalam community in Dwi Karya Bakti Village, Pelepat Sub-district, Bungo Regency, Jambi Province. Born as the only girl in the family, Sri Bungo feels very loved by her three brothers. The family's source of livelihood is hunting and gardening. Although they didn't make a lot of money, it was enough to sustain their daily lives.
But everything changed after her father passed away due to illness. Sri Bungo was forced to marry a man of her family's choice in 2020. According to her, this marriage could ease the burden on her mother's dependents.
Unfortunately, due to differences of opinion and other things, Sri Bungo's household had to run aground at the age of one year of marriage. Now at a young age, Sri Bungo must be a single parent to Reno (3 years old), the child of her marriage.
Sri Bungo is just one of many women in the SAD community who are unable to defy the tradition or culture of marrying young. For the SAD community, it is not taboo to marry off their girls when they reach puberty. Girls also have no right to challenge the marriage as they are used to not being consulted in any matter. She has never thought about her widow status, and regretting it is pointless.
Reno is Sri Bungo's only source of strength to survive. Even though she is now living without a husband, Sri Bungo wants to prove that she is strong and resilient enough to fight for life. After being left by her ex-husband, Sri Bungo returned to live with her biological mother.
Sri Bungo would usually join women's groups in her community to look for forest products, such as jernang, areca nut, jengkol, kabau or fruits.
‘We go to the forest together. The men usually take fruit from the tallest trees. We take the fruit from the low trees,’ said Sri Bungo. The results they get will later be divided equally.
‘Usually, after sharing the money, we get between fifty thousand to three hundred thousand. But that's not every day,’ he said. She usually gives the proceeds to her mother. For them, the money is enough for a simple meal for the next few days.
When she is not so busy earning a living, Sri Bungo is also actively involved in Mina Hasop Eluk's business activities and other activities. Even if there is an order, she often coordinates her group members to produce smoked fish independently, starting from harvesting, smoking the fish, packaging and fulfilling all incoming orders. The involvement of Sri Bungo in group activities is one of Pundi Sumatra's cadre efforts.
The desire to create an empowered and independent women's group is one of Pundi Sumatra's desires. ‘Equality between men and women in economic activities or other activities is an important role so that this indigenous group is more developed and advanced,’ said Yori as programme coordinator. Therefore, the formation of this cadre is an important step.
Sri Bungo's leadership has become more visible since a special posyandu was initiated in the last six months by the Jambi University Matching Fund Team and Pundi Sumatra. Her high participation and enthusiasm in every activity, led her to be elected as the head of the special posyandu ‘Aoh Berghsih’.
This special posyandu is a development of the existing posyandu in the village. Usually the posyandu implementation process refers to the 5-table system, namely Table 1: Registration by cadres, Table 2: Weighing by cadres, Table 3: KMS filling by cadres, Table 4: Counselling by cadres and Table 5: Health services by cadres or cadres with health workers.
The special posyandu adds two tables that will be filled by cadres from the SAD group, namely Table 6: Traditional medicine, and Table 7: Consultation.
‘We also have to take Reno to the posyandu, we want him to be healthy and not get sick easily. Maybe from this posyandu, we can learn about health issues for children!’ she added.
“kami pun harus bawa Reno ke posyandu, kami ingin dio sehat dan tidak gampang sakit. Mungkin dari posyandu ini, kami bisa belajar masalah kesehatan untuk anak!” tambahnya.
Pundi Sumatra cadres are slowly harvesting results. Sri Bungo adds to the list of female cadres in this group. Although it is difficult for her to walk far from home, her work and enthusiasm to fight for the community is very proud.