Education and training

Indonesia: training young journalists

Pantau was Indonesia′s leading media magazine until 2002, when it had to close for financial reasons. The Jakarta based Pantau Foundation (www.pantau.or.id) was set up by former staff members to serve as a forum for critical journalists. Pantau is actively engaged in the training of young journalists. Today the Indonesian media, which was controlled and harassed under the long Suharto dictatorship, plays a crucial role in the process of democratization and development. This is why Asia working group regularly supports trainings for young journalists — especially outside of the main island of Java. The most recent project we supported was a training in the Moluccan Islands. The region is contested between Christian and Muslim militias, which a few years ago led to "ethnic cleansing" involving several thousand deaths. The Asia working group supported a four-day training workshop put on by Pantau called Covering ethnic, religious and nationalist conflicts in Indonesia (four trainers and seventeen participants) with € 5,495.

Education for minorities in Bangladesh

In cooperation with the Asia working group and the German organization Netz — Partnerschaft für Entwicklung und Gerechtigkeit e.V., the Bangladeshi organization Ashrai is building a pilot program school in Idolpur, an Oraon village in western Bangladesh.

Ashrai agitates for the rights of often segregated ethnic minorities like the Adivasi, and works mainly in the fields of education, self-sustaining help and income generation. According to NGO estimates, the literacy rate amoung minorities is below twenty percent.

The Asia working group is supporting the school, where Oraon pupils are taught in their mother tongue, for a period of three years with € 7,000. Teaching materials for the subjects Oraon, Bengali, mathematics and social studies are currently being compiled by local teachers. These materials will be made available to other schools in the future.
www.bangladesch.org/set.php?id=netz&uid=wir_ueber_ uns

South-South exchange for trainees

Since 1994, the Philippine NGO Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) has frequently mediated in conflicts and peace negotiations, such as in Burma, East Timor and Mindanao (Philippines). Especially the activities concerning awareness-raising and building solidarity for the struggle of the East Timorese were very effective. Over the course of many years IID has acquired outstanding competencies in conflict resolution, which it can now pass on to others. IID has been training interns from various South and Southeast Asian countries since 1994. During these three- to six-month traineeships, emphasis is put on strengthening civil society members, civil conflict measures and tutoring junior employees for nongovernmental organizations in the field of development policiy.

The Asia working group financed the internships for two East Timorese who visited IID in the Philippines and supported the stay of an NGO consultant in East Timor with a total of US$ 7,000 in 2004.
www.iidnet.org/aboutus.htm