The Unrotten Determination of Bapak Jony

Dream, Passion, and Action

“I dream of the days where home gardens will turn into an essential need of the community. I’m pretty sure that those will also be the days where the community no longer rely on other institutions to manage their home gardens.” 

That dream is not of a highly ambitious young executive, a typical dream that is common to be found in an urban working setting. In fact, Yohanes Oja – or better known as Bapak Jony – was already 64 when he spoke up that dream.

“Ever since I learned that the community did not utilize their garden well, I have been determined to encourage them to utilize it for a home garden,” said the man who lives in Were III Village, one of the assisted villages of Wahana Visi Indonesia through the Operational Office of Ngada District. For some, everything is just a matter of coincidence. However, looking at how Bapak Jony’s lifetime passion and experience in farming convinced him to become one of the home garden facilitators in his village, they may have got it all wrong.

It is all for a reason. A very beautiful one.

It was December 2015 when Bapak Jony first joined a home garden training. But what is it all for?

Having a sufficient nutrition intake is critical to healthy growth and development of children, especially in Ngada District where malnutrition is prevalent. From a study conducted in 2016 in 8 assisted villages alone, it was found that 45,6 % of under-five children were stunted; 11,1 % were wasted; and 35,4 % were underweighted.

A home garden – if well-developed – can provide its owner with a variety of nutritious vegetables. ”Previously the community had to buy the vegetables in the market for daily consumption. However, they were most of the times reluctant to get through the distance that lied between the village and the market. As such, their daily diet was very lack of vegetables and was dominated more by meats,” he recalled.

“It was by no means easy to educate the community about the home garden. They really had no idea of what it was all about and, on top of that, how to apply it,” admitted Bapak Jony. “Even now sometimes they still feel unmotivated if I’m not there to encourage them,” added the man who has advocated the Village Government to allocate some budget for seeds procurement. Despite the challenges, he has actively helped the community apply all the knowledge he got from the home garden training.

All the Hardwork Paid Off

In Were III Village there are currently 53 households that have already developed a home garden (29 of which are from Bapak Jony’s subvillage named Enabhara). In addition, the Government of Were III Village has expressed their support towards the home garden program by having allocated IDR 2.7 million (around USD 208) for the home garden development in that village.

Bapak Jony (right) is demonstrating how to compose organic fertilizer during home garden training in Enabhara sub-village

“Children here are more and more used to consuming vegetables now. It has improved their health. This year in there was no under-five child found with malnutrition, compared to the previous year where there were three found with such condition,” said Bapak Jony proudly when mentioning a real impact of home garden upon the children in Enabhara Subvillage.

This man should have also taught the community how to keep their determination alive.

Written by Adrian Mangunsong, Programme Officer at Wahana Visi Indonesia