The Foundation
The Java Village Foundation has been acknowledged as an Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling, ANBI (institution serving public interest) by the Dutch tax authorities. Java Village started off as a private effort by its founders. The past years, since its official foundation in 2007, Java Village has laid down the groundwork for the implementation of its activities. This is something which both the board and its volunteers have worked hard on. The initial emergency assistance, has now been replaced by a focus on capacity building, self-reliance and transparency.
Mission
The Java Village Foundation supports villagers on West Java in their struggle for a better future for themselves and their community. We help people in their fight against poverty, focusing our efforts on their needs and priorities. We tend to focus our attention on the most vulnerable groups: children, youths and women who are the main income providers of their families. An important requirement is that the support offered will improve self-reliance and solidarity.
Goals
The goal of the Java Village Foundation is to contribute to sustainable development of the community in Cisarua and provide a better life for all its inhabitants. We aim to achieve this goal by:
- creating awareness of the need to help the most vulnerable inhabitants
- creating opportunities for the underprivileged inhabitants, mostly children, youths and women who are the main income providers of their families
- stimulating self-reliance by carefully choosing our projects
- gathering funds to realize these projects
- guiding these projects in Indonesia by our own female field worker, in cooperation with local organisations
- operating in full transparency; we guarantee at least 75% of the funds received are used for our projects, though we strive to reach 85%.
Target group
Our target group is the most vulnerable inhabitants of Cisarua, who are for a number of reasons not (yet) able to fend for themselves and to escape from poverty. In practice, this concerns mainly children, youths and women who are the main providers of their family’s income. They mainly work in farming, which does not provide enough to survive from day to day.
Policy
To achieve our goals, the Java Village Foundation develops a new strategic policy plan every three years. This policy plan is published on the website and is accessible to everyone. We also organise a yearly board meeting to evaluate the effectiveness of our policy and whether we can continue in the same way or need to change our course. Please click here to download our policy plan.
Finances
The Java Village Foundation believes that our funds should be used for the people in Indonesia as much as possible rather than for administration.
Both the CBF (Dutch office that supervises fundraising by charities) and other foundations set 25% as a maximum for administration costs. We strive to remain below this percentage, with a maximum of 15%. We will be able to achieve this because we do not rent or own our building. Board members and other volunteers do not receive a salary for their activities. In addition, we are aware that all expenses for administrative purposes is money that cannot be spent on the projects. Still we sometimes consider it justifiable to invest in fundraising and other activities in the Netherlands if this increases the chance of attracting funds. To provide complete transparency towards our donors, we make sure that our finances are handled professionally and are made available to all our relationship-holders. The annual financial account is made public and we strive to make it available on our website nine months after the financial year. The annual account will include a sign of approval of our audit committee. Please click here for our latest annual report.
Board
The board consists of five members. They do not receive financial compensation for their activities. The board follows the guidelines of officially recognised fund raising institutions as a minimum requirement to itself. Currently the foundation is run by the following board members:
• Mies Grijns – chair and projects coordination
• Sonja Abrahams – treasurer
• Ties Molhoek – secretary
• Kristel Hoogstad – vice-secretary & administration
• Huguette Mackay – marketing & communication
Our fieldworker in Indonesia is Titi Setiawati. She has been guiding our projects in Indonesia for many years and with great enthusiasm.
We are in a privileged position to be assisted by a number of volunteers, also in Indonesia, with specific qualities. Our volunteers are: Sita van Bemmelen, Katja Dold, John and Evelien Hurst-Buis, Yvonne van der Kooij, Tineke Mook, Sandrijn Myjer, Silvy Puntowati, Digna Ruitenbeek, Anindita Sitepu, Gerard de Winter. Photo’s: Armin Hari, Tino Djumini, Izmy Khumairoh, Hans Kleijn, Amba Pidada.
