From Where I Stand: “We were defeated by the disaster. But … we can be more resilient.”
Muhammad Amin is the Head of Wisolo Village in Sigi District, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. He is also advisor of the village’s Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction. He attended a workshop on 16 July 2024 organized by UN Women and the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration on gender-responsive village planning and budgeting fiscal year 2025. Wisolo is one of 20 villages supported by UN Women in strengthening the capacity of the community on disaster management, prevention of social conflict and prevention of violence extremism/radicalization, through a project funded by KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) called Empowered Women for Sustainable Peace.
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Interview by: Mutia Salma
The bad dreams of disaster decades ago strike me still, but now I know how to build resilience together with my community.”
Living in a mountainous area, I know that there are multiple risks that threaten us, from disaster to socioeconomic factors. Back then, our village was defeated by the great floods in 1996 and 2006 in which properties and livelihoods were (lost). Even lately, many Wisolo people still need to work in the neighbouring villages, while disputes often appear over commodities.
However, I feel different now as we are uniting to beat those challenges. In our village, we have the Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction where women and youths are the leaders and enablers. It is important to engage women and youths in village activities to keep peace. I am impressed by the work of women who promptly and tirelessly share and update information in times of emergency. They make use of handy talkie devices which we also share with other village stakeholders.
I was happy to join the workshop by Ministry of Village and UN Women on village budgeting. I am now clear about the policies and village authority to build up the resilience of my village. I went into the room questioning how we can allocate an emergency budget for my village to be safe from river flooding. Now I know it is important to have village budgeting that is sensitive to risks and formalized through the village forum.
We were defeated by the disaster and it might be inevitable. But I want us to prepare as much as possible, learning from the past experience so that we can be more resilient.”
Muhammad’s work supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, on Climate Action, and Goal 16, on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.