Ibu PUNI

Tri Mumpuni Wiyatno is usually called Ibu (Madamme) Puni. She is an Indonesian woman who dedicated herself in making electricity work in Indonesian rural villages. For this dedication she received an award "WWF Climate Hero" in 2005" and many more awards, including running with the olympic torch during 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay.

Her Childhood
Ibu Puni is the third child from 8 siblings. Since she was in grade 4 at the elemantary school (just like us!), she had been helping some villagers who had skin disease together with her mother. "That experience taught me about human relationship process, money was not everything," she said.

Helping for Electricity Priviledges in Rural Village
Ibu Puni and her husband, Bapak Iskandar Kuntoadji, work together with People Centred Business and Economic Institute (IBEKA) which is based in Bandung. She usually work for rural villages.

What she does are not easy. With her husband, Ibu Puni helps rural villages that cannot be reached by the government to build their own electricity from the resources that the villages have, using microhydro energy generator which is made from the river current.

She also helps the villagers to organize themselves, learning how to make their own electricity, raising money to make their own electricity and maintain it even after she leaves the village. So not only that she teaches people to act and not just wait for the government to take care of them, she also gives the people the skill and knowledge to be self reliant.

When I was doing my research,I have tried not using electricity for one hour at night yesterday and I can not think of how my life would be without electricity. I love to read and write, not only in the morning but also at night when the sun does not shine anymore.I use the computer to learn a lot (just like typing this paper!). My father also tells me that electricity helps many people do their job. If people can do their job better, their family can also live better.

Now, hundreds of rural villages in Indonesia have benefit from Ibu Puni's courageous act. Many children can now read, write and study (and they can do it at night time also). These villages now can also start building small industries that help their economy to grow.

Source of research :
1. http://sosok.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/tri-mumpuni-wiyatno-menerangi-desa/

2. http://www.lead.org/member/129 (where I take the picture of Ibu Puni)

3. http://www.ashoka.org/node/3870


Amanda Armansyah
4 Blue
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This is my End of Term Writing Assessment Project in IPS

Theme : Courageous People