Who is SNT?
serving
the poor in west java
Sumbangsih Nuansa
Tasikmalaya (SNT) is a non-government organization (NGO)
involved in small-scale community development in the city of
Tasikmalaya, on the island of Java, Indonesia. SNT grew out of
a vision for holistic development shared by two expatriate
families. Initially teaching English while they explored
possibilities, the official organization was established in June
1997, but the work started small and slowly. Since the year 2000,
seven units have been added in increments as needs have been
identified and capacity increased.
SNT comprises six units:
four operational units and two support units.
SNT has a total of about forty staff, comprising
25 national workers and 14 expatriates. The expatriate staff are
from Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore,
Switzerland, United
Kingdom and United States and are seconded by other NGOs from
outside Indonesia, while the national staff are employees of
SNT.
How We
Work
We intentionally seek to serve the disadvantaged and
marginalised of Tasikmalaya because these folk often miss out on
the benefits of official development programmes. People of
faith tend to notice and be motivated to do something about this
growing gap between the rich and the poor. What makes SNT
unique is that we aim to provide a practical structure through
which people who are serious about their faith can work together
in a holistic way for the sake of the poor. We
intentionally employ both Muslims and Christians (the two
largest religious groupings in the country) with the belief that
by working together to help others. we can engender a spirit of
cooperation and understanding between these two major faiths.
Another way our organization is unusual is that
our expatriate consultants choose to live very much within the
community in order that they might forge friendships of trust
and two-way communication with those they seek to help. Because SNT is only involved in small-scale programmes, we have the
flexibility to be creative and respond to changing needs.
We believe that a
participatory methodology will best enable us to accomplish this.
This means that outsiders come in, not as experts, but as
fellow-learners who listen and can help draw out the indigenous
knowledge and latent skills of the local people. When consensus
is reached and decisions are made, we attempt to midwife whatever
external funding, resources and training might be necessary to implement
the agreed-upon projects.
