Women are the pioneers of change, and this can start from family to community. They have extra inner power to survive in crises including the pandemic of Covid-19. Evidently many women are looking for alternative business during the pandemic for their families to survive.

On Sunday, July 26, 2020 in one discussion held by Multiplication of Stube HEMAT in Sumba, Rev. Suryaningsih Mila, M.Si.Teol, STT GKS lecturer said that basically men and women have the same responsibility to fulfill family needs. However, women (wives) often bear more burden than their husbands because they have to work both in domestic and public spaces. In Indonesian context, East Nusa Tenggara, especially Sumba, women are the guardians of the family granary, the manager of the family economy.

The discussion itself was attended by 30 female participants, promoting women and the potency of Sumba. Rev. Suryaningsih greatly appreciated the struggle of Sumba women generally. "Who cares the most for the domestic needs and the children? When the harvest season comes, who often takes a bus into town and sits on the storefront to sell?" she asked. Simultaneously, the participants answered ‘women’. Furthermore, she identified the strength, potencies, and skills of women.

In many cases, women are tougher, conscientious, diligent, responsible, sensitive, caring that become the power of women to develop their potencies. They are also more resilient, not easy to give up and creative to deal with economic crises. In the middle of the discussion, participants were divided into small groups to share experiences. Iche Hana, a single young teacher at junior high school, shared her experiences during pandemic, she develops her other potencies, by weaving and selling cakes. Adriana, a housewife, told her experience when she wanted to sell corn she had to take a bus or truck to Waingapu. Arriving the town,  she walked around to sell corn, and at night she kept selling corn along the sidewalk. Yohana, a housewife, said, “I once sold cakes in Waingapu, but because of Corona I was chased by the civil service police, and no cakes sold. I cried, finally I gave all cakes to my neighbor to be owed, but I received no payment until now. The rest of the flour rotten and I threw it away to feed pigs”. They hope to be involved in this multiplication program.

Ps. Suryaningsih Mila, M.Si.Teol encouraged the participants and gave overview that Sumba women face many obstacles. The patriarchal culture affects the power relation between men and women, the dominance of men as the successors of the family tends to marginalize women’s role, which put women as domestic (household) workers and underestimate the strength and potency of women. The relation of power also weaken the position of women, creating violence and exploitation of women and girls. Thus, many women do not dare to explore their potency, the cultural and natural potency around them. Women become less confident and more dependent on men.

Hopefully, through this empowerment program, Sumba women can contribute more with their strong will to bring out their potency and develop potencies around them for the common good. They should learn more to equip themselves with knowledge, important information and the skills.  As a form of their  follow-up, the women's community started to prepare vegetable beds equipped with a fence and nursery garden for natural dyeing material of their weaving. ***