Mama Marta recovers her farm and finances with access to a water loan

Mama Marta, as she is often called by friends and relatives, beams with excitement as she waters her kale, tomatoes, beans and pumpkins. Marta is hopeful again that her farm will yield a bountiful harvest, enough to last the next planting season to care for her family. 

A resident of Soe, on the isle of Timor in  eastern Indonesia, Marta has been struggling to keep up with the needs of her family since she lost her husband barely three years ago. 

Life has been difficult, but even much more difficult when she has to watch her crops die due to a lack of water. Many farmers like Marta from different parts of the world have been witnessing changing patterns in the climate that are affecting rainfalls. It’s either they barely get sprinkles, not enough to grow a healthy plant, or too much that causes floods to wash away the crops that managed to grow. 

“I have heard so many stories of how KOMIDA is a cooperative partner for women who live in villages like me. With nothing in my hand, I went to them to see how they can help me pipe water to irrigate my crops, so they don’t die and indeed, they actually gave me a loan that helped me to do just that,” said Marta. 

KOMIDA is the abbreviated form of "Koperasi Mitra Dhuafa." In Indonesian, "koperasi" means "cooperative," "mitra" means "partner," and "dhuafa" refers to those who are economically disadvantaged or in need. KOMIDA is, therefore, a cooperative that partners with and supports economically disadvantaged individuals or communities. 

KOMIDA is one of the many microfinance institutions (MFIs) that Oxfam Novib supports through its investment partner, Triple Jump, to provide access to savings and loans for women micro-entrepreneurs with low-income in Indonesia.  

Marta built a water storage with the loan she accessed from KOMIDA and from there, she could pipe water to irrigate her farm.  

“We have seen how  women with low incomes struggle to access finance to grow their business from traditional financial institutions. This was what inspired us to establish KOMIDA microfinance institution to bridge that gap for women in Indonesia,” said Sugeng Priyono, the chief operating officer at KOMIDA. 

As of 2023, KOMIDA has provided financial and non-financial loans to 851,597  female micro entrepreneurs in Indonesia to not only grow their businesses but also take care of their welfare. “We target  women with low incomes so they can improve their welfare. 96% of our clients are in rural areas and so we use social performance management as a benchmark in providing loans to our clients,” Sugeng added. 

“Since I stopped waiting for rain alone to water my farm and got the sanitation & water loan from KOMIDA, my farm now yields better crops. I have even built a stall where I sell the produce from my farm. My greatest fear after my husband died three years ago was that my children would suffer lack of basic needs, but thanks to KOMIDA my fears did not come to pass,” Marta added. 

With our new investment strategy, we now direct a large part of our funds to MFIs in 27 countries most affected by the impact of climate change to strengthen their capacity to provide products to small scale business owners to help them recover from climate disasters and as well build their resilience and adaptation to climate change. 

Between 2017 - 2023, Oxfam Novib have reached 758,227 end clients like Marta with access to finance, 79% are women and 68% live in rural communities.  

One MFI at a time, we are creating inclusive, sustainable and fair economies that tackle poverty and inequality through our impact investment Funds.