A Lesson Learnt from ACF on Urban Community based Flood Preparedness Programme 2006

 Working with  A France NGOs, Action Contre la Faim (2006)

I graduated from the University of Indonesia on August 2005. A month or two, i received a phone call from a France NGOs, Action Contre la Faim. I got a job interview and met with a wonderful handsome guy, who was later became my supervisor and one of my closest best friend now. The interview was none like the others, it took me 3 hours just having a chat and informal discussion with Mr Edward Turvill. I was scared, anxious, and curious on how the interview went off. A few weeks later, I received an email informing that i received the job. I was lucky that year, graduated on August 2005 and received a job offer from an International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) on December 2005. 

Mr Edward Turvill, circa 2009 a short meet up in Jakarta

My job title in ACF at that time was as Programme Assistant for Disaster Preparedness Indonesia (DPI) Department that implemented a Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) on flood risks in DKI Jakarta. Under the funding support from Disaster Preparedness European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DIPECHO), ACF worked in 3 urban villages: Kampung Melayu and Cipinang Besar Utara in East Jakarta Region, and Penjaringan in North Jakarta Region. The project was basically comprised of capacity building activities and risk assessment. 

The project was revitalized from the previous project that was implemented years before. My first assignment at that time was to assist my manager to attend a national workshop on CBDRM. The event was held in Bogor and attended by many reputable government and non-government agencies, including: Bakornas PB (Now BNPB), GIZ, ADPC, IDEP Foundation, Ministry of Home Affairs, and many others. It was my first encounter with DRR multi-stakeholder in Indonesia, and my lesson learnt in understanding the contextually of disaster management in Indonesia. It was happened in 2006. 

As part of daily work activity, I also attended several coordination meeting with the Jakarta Province and provided assistance in translating documents as well as a translator to the Program Manager. At that time, ACF was full with expatriate staff who are mostly French. Their documents as well as PC or Laptop are using French as default language. It was a new experience for me also an opportunity to learn other foreign language. Although I was hired only for 3 months period, the DPI Team later hired me to develop capacity assessment study on local community protection task force or known as Satlinmas (currently is called as BPBD). 

Working for a short contract with ACF has given me the opportunity to build my basic knowledge on DRR, also open another door in learning new subject on water, sanitation, and hygiene which later supported my next assignment with Mercy Corps in 2008-2009, and CDC Ministry of Health in 2011.

References:
1. https://adoc.pub/formalisasi-satlinmas-stpb.html
2.https://docplayer.info/32389198-Info-kegiatan-pengurangan-risiko-bencana-formalisasi-satlinmas.html
3. https://www.academia.edu/11936310/Multi_Risk_Disaster_Mapping_in_Jakarta_-_ACF

4.http://acfdpjkt-bhs.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-01-04T10:00:00%2B07:00&max-results=5&start=20&by-date=false