The Abbus family : Coconut Charcoal Makers

Meidy (34) is married to Agus (31) and they have a 10 yr old son Arvando. The family lives under the flight path of Manado’s international airport and they also support Agus’ mother and sister Selvi, who was crippled at birth.

Meidy and Agus have traditionally been subsistence farmers. They are fortunate enough to live in a small run down house they inherited from Agus’ parents and to have borrowed a small piece of land from a family member, which is able to produce a crop of maize every 3 months. They also grow bananas and beans.  In the past they have relied upon this for their family income, which has amounted to an average of 250,000 Rph (A$40) per month. Not only was this totally insufficient for their needs, but also very irregular.

In 2004 Meidy learnt how to make Arang Terpurung or charcoal out of coconut shells from Agus’ father before he died. She decided to start a small business with Agus’ help. In January 2006 they took out a loan from a loan shark to help them expand their business, buy some tools and look after their cows. Within a few months of starting, with mounting daily interest payments and the realisation that they were trapped in a cycle of daily repayment, they heard about the Bridge of Hope micro enterprise program. A new loan group of 18 small business owners called Esagenang, meaning ‘United as One’, was starting in their village. This new loan group had been made possible from the funds raised in Manly through Action Against Poverty.

After seven training meetings, informing them on the responsibilities of shared loan group ownership and accountability, Meidy and Agustook up the offer to join the group and were quickly able to pay off the loan shark, free themselves from mounting debt and start to invest into their business to increase the family income.

Coconut shells are a daily waste product of people living in the area whose staple diet includes coconut. Most days, after a 5am start for Agus, when he tends to his cows named Batik & Manis, both he and Meidy collect these shells with their cow pulled cart, paying a small price for each one.  They take anything from a few hours to the whole day to collect and transport these shells to their charcoal-burning pit, along with kerosene and a plentiful of water to extinguish the fire when the charcoal is ready. If the weather is fine they try to burn one pit-full per day over a 4hr attentive process, being very careful not to over burn the shells, resulting in nothing but ash. The charcoal is then bagged, ready to be sold.

Each bag of charcoal requires 500 coconut shells, weighs 35kg and is sold for just 31,500 Rph (A$ 4.70). It is sold for use as cooking charcoal or to help produce inks, toners and batteries. When the weather is fair they can produce up to 20 bags a week if they can get enough raw material. But often it is raining, especially this year and their average production is only 7 bags per week. Their joint resulting income averages A$4/day for all their hard work, but nowat least it is regular and sufficient to meet their daily minimum needs, along with their farming income.

Some days Meidy works the business alone, while Agus works in the field tending to their corn. But mostly they like to work together. “It is not fair for my husband to work hard alone” said Meidy, “in the good times and the bad times, we are together, we are always together.”

When we asked them what were the main benefits of being part of the new loan group, they answered “Low interest, the chance to share with others in the same position, make savings and being able to support our son’s education. All we needed was the opportunity to help ourselves."

Meidy and Agus’ relationship demonstrates an untold love and joy for each other, which carries them through everything. They take great pride in their work and in providing Arvando with an education. Arvando is an intelligent boy, in 5th grade, a year ahead for his age. He is a great sportsman and his dream is to be in the police force. His Dad’s dream as a boy was the same, but his family wasn’t able to afford to send him to the Police Training Academy. Agus’ dream now is to be able to send his son to the Academy.

With the opportunity for increased income, business training and making savings, there is now some glimmer of hope that he may be able to do this one day.

When we asked Meidy and Agus about whether we could use their picture and inspiring story, they shyly smiled and said “we are very happy for you to use it, because we want others like us to have the same opportunity to help themselves”.

As we left, we gave them a spade, a mattock and a saw to help them with their business. They were beaming with delight!