Having travelled around 343 sea miles starting from Raja Ampat, West Papua, up through to North Maluku, EcoNusa Maluku Expedition team carried on the social mission to Maluku Province. With Kurabesi Explorer, the team sailed to 9 villages in 2 regencies in Maluku, Seram Bagian Barat Regency and Maluku Tengah Regency.
The first destination was Nuruwe Village in Kairatu Barat District, Seram Bagian Barat Regency. Actually, Nuruwe will be one of the villages in which EcoNusa provides assistance through School of Eco Involvement (SEI) program in 2021. SEI program focuses on the management of village potentials to build a local resilience in food, energy and environment. In addition, there are other 10 villages in Seram Bagian Barat that will involve in SEI. Those are Uweth, Buria, Manusa, Rambatu, Hulu Besar, Hulu Kecil, Lohiatala, Neniari, Lumoly, and Morekau.
To reach Nuruwe, the team should travel for about 4 hours from Tulehu port in Salahutu District, Maluku Tengah Regency. The ship arrived at Nuruwe at 21.15 Eastern Indonesia Time. Staying onboard, the team will coordinate with the village authorities for the initial mission on Monday (9/11/2020).
The next morning, Nuruwe villagers with their hospitality greeted and hailed the EcoNusa team’s arrival. They escorted the team to the village authority office. At the office, several local figures and government had been waiting. The local official turned up 15 minutes before the opening session of EcoNusa Maluku Expedition at the village hall (Baileo) of Nuruwe.
Bustar Maitar, EcoNusa Foundation’s CEO, on his speech stated that EcoNusa’s mission to Nuruwe was to call the community to conserve forests and ocean ecosystem.
“EcoNus also intends to share knowledge to the community on agriculture sector and way to develop the leading local commodity products more optimally. Let alone, Nuruwe has multifarious commodities,” said Bustar. Nuruwe commodities range from seaweed, nutmeg, clove, coconut (copra), sagu, and sugar palm as the major ingredient to create traditional liquor, sopi.
Bustar added that agriculture is very important as it is the resource for primary needs of the community. Therefore, EcoNusa also distributed farming tools as its support to the community.
“There are some supports we will distribute such as protective health gear (APD) to farming equipment. But do not think that what we give here is a donation, but rather a stimulus. Donation is from the government,” he said.
Nuruwe official, Frida Paferia, appreciated the supports provided by EcoNusa Maluku Expedition team here. As to her, the noble mission should get positive welcome from all community elements.
“As the village official, I surely feel grateful. I hope the activity today will sustain,” said Frida.
COVID-19 Prevention Campaign
Not only channeling the health and farming equipment, EcoNusa team also provided health education to prevent COVID-19 to the Nuruwe villagers and 8 other targeted villages.
The health team held a socialization to the community on the correct handwashing technique and the importance of health protocol by physical distancing and mask wearing, particularly when they have outdoor activities.
In addition to COVID-19 prevention, the medical team also provided free medication and medical check. The protective health gear was also distributed to the community health center and masks for free to the community.
Ridho, SLANK guitarist joining in the expedition here, took part in the campaign while reminding the local people of the compliance with the government’s health protocol. Disembarking from ship and started strolling around the village for free mask distribution, children and elderly people were so enthusiastically grabbing the masks given by SLANK’s guitarist here.
“As requested by the health protocol campaign, we should be disciplined to wear mask, wash hand and prevent from crowd, right,” Ridho called the Nuruwe villagers.
Editor: V. Arnila Wulandani & Leo Wahyudi
