Indonesians in Focus: Rena Herdiyani

Kalyanamitra Foundation, a non-governmental organization, has been the spring-board that launched the careers of many noted women’s activists in the country such as Debra Yatim, Sita Aripurnami, Mira Diarsi, Ratna Saptari, Syarifah Sabaroedin and Ita F. Nadia.

Celebrating its 22nd anniversary last week, Kalyanamitra, which takes is name from a Sanskrit word meaning “good fellow“, is today managed by relatively lesser-known young activists as A. Junaidi reports.

“Yes, their ‘big names’ are also a burden for us, but let’s forget all those ‘celebrities’,” Kalayanamitra executive director Rena Herdiyani joked, smiling, then shifted to a more serious tone.

“We must now work hard in community building,” Rena said on the sidelines of the foundation’s anniversary event at the Hotel Ibis Tamarin in Central Jakarta.

Debra Yatim, Mira Diarsi and Ita F. Nadia were among those activists who attended Kalyanamitra’s anniversary, which was marked with the launch of Pergolakan Pemikiran dan Politik Perempuan: Esai-esai Nawal el-Saadawi (Turmoil of thoughts and women’s politics: Essays of Nawal el-Saadawi) — a collection of essays by the Egyptian writer and feminist in an Indonesian-language translation.

Rena believes that her seniors at the foundation, along with other activists, had paved the way for women’s rights, such as in proposing laws and regulations in favor of women.

She said the most important duty of today’s activists was to explain these laws and regulations as well as other agendas of the women’s movement to grassroots women.

“There is still a wide gap of knowledge between women activists and women in the community. Women (at the grassroots level) still consider that feminism is ‘hell’. So it’s our duty to explain it to them,” said Rena, who wears a Muslim headscarf.

Besides the knowledge gap, she added, the Indonesian women’s movement still faced a multitude of problems such as the low education of women, high maternal mortality rate, polygamy and poverty.

“All these problems have worsened with the increasing trend of fundamentalism,” she said, which occurred in the grass roots as well as at the national level — as was evidenced by the issuance of religion-based bylaws and the Anti-pornography Bill.

She believed these bylaws and the bill tried to restrict the women’s movement, and considered women as a source of evil deeds in society.

“Indonesian women should unite and develop a joint strategy to fight fundamentalism in all its forms,” she suggested.

Aside from rejecting laws and regulations that restricted women, Rena said women’s organizations needed to engage with grassroots communities to educate women.

“Many women think that the Anti-pornography Bill is good for them. They don’t see the details of the bill,” she said.

Born in Bekasi, West Java, on Dec. 17, 1976, Rena was appointed as Kalyanamitra executive director for two consecutive two-year terms starting in 2005 after she had worked at the NGO as an advocacy staffer for a few years.

The NGO and its world has long been a daily purpose for Rena, who has a five-year-old son. Immediately after graduating in 1999 from the STKSI institute for social welfare in the West Java capital, Rena joined the AKA3 Foundation, a Bandung-based NGO.

Prior to joining Kalyanamitra, she also worked at the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) and at another NGO that focused on legal and environmental issues.

Under her leadership, Kalayanamitra has become involved in community development programs across the country, including Lumajang in East Java and Banda Aceh in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

Aside from developing communities, the foundation, along with other women NGOs, is involved advocacy activities and seminars related to women’s issues.

In addition to launching an Indonesian-language version of Nawal el-Saadawi’s essays, Kalayanamitra has released several other titles, including a comic series on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Aside from their educational and informative aspects, the publications are also aimed to raise funds for Kalayanamitra’s numerous activities.

According to Kalyanamitra’s 2006 financial report, the NGO also receives assistance from several foreign donors, such as the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR), the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and United Nations agencies.

A. Junaidi