Godo Sunarno, snack/chips producer in Mlese village, Klaten

After the death of his wife Sudarmi in the earthquake of 27 May 2006, Gondo Sunarno, 65, has vowed not to dwell in prolonged sorrow and to work instead to rebuild his house and livelihood in a loving memory of his wife.
Gondo dreams of restarting the business he and his wife once ventured into hand-in-hand, making
and selling traditional Javanese crispy rice snacks called krupuk karak. “I am sure my wife will love the idea. I am sure she’ll be happy if I can really restart this business,”
he says.

But first he says he needs to have his house completely rebuilt. So, he is grateful that he and over 300 of his other fellow villagers of Mlese hamlet, Klaten district, received JRF assistance for rebuilding permanent houses.
He seems optimistic that he will manage to jump start his snacks business once his new house
is ready, despite some other concerns, such as the rising price of rice (the base material of his
snacks).

“I’m sure I can manage. I have the skills, experience and network.” Having his new house rebuilt on time is now his main concern, he admits. “On this I will have to count on the JRF to some extent, because there’s no way I will be able to rebuild the house with my own money alone. The JRF’s assistance is my only hope,” Gondo is among the JRF permanent housing benefi ciaries in Mlese who received the first installment of JRF grant worth Rp 6 million in January 2007. They have used up the money. “As soon as we got the money transferred to our account, my group took it out and went together to shop for building materials, split them evenly amongst us, and started to work on one member’s house after the other,” explains Gondo. He is the team leader.

He says he now really appreciates the JRF requirement that they work in groups and that they follow the scheme’s accounting procedures, although there was initial reluctance on his and the villagers’ part that the procedures were too demanding for simple folk like them. “It turns out to be virtuous to us all as it taught us to be responsible,” he says. “We now feel that our new houses are not simply freebies, but that we also have worked hard on them, by playing our roles responsibly and by dedicating our time and energy on them,” he adds. Gondo and his fellow JRF benefi ciaries have fi nished the fi rst stage of their house reconstruction. “We really look forward to receiving the second installment so we will be able to continue the development.

” Gondo says he has sought to match the JRF grant he received with loans to help expedite the construction of his new 24-sqm house.