April 7, 2015 edition

It was already late at night when Tempo arrived at Martinus's residence in Flores Island community of Rampasasa. Under the dim light of a solar-powered LED lamp, Petrus Antas, a tua tenoa Manggarai vernacular for a customary leaderexplained the poor living conditions of the indigenous Rampasasa pygmies. He sat surrounded by hamlet residents.
Having no ID cards, the residents do not have access to government aid programs like the People's Health Guarantee, or People's Temporary Direct Aid (BLSM). The hamlet is not reachable by public vehicles. The state electricity company PLN has promised to link the community to the electricity grid by 2014 but a year later, "nothing has happened," said Martinus as he pulled down the lamp cord to make the light brighter. But due to the many hours of cloudy skies the February day that Tempo visited, little solar energy was stored, and therefore the lamps dimmed again. Antas is the father of Rampasasa hamlet head, Martinus.

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More Outreach articles in other editions

January 1, 1970 edition

River Saviors Of Medan
Budi Bahar Yong leads a grassroots effort to recuperate Medan's ailing Deli River. Who is this Budi and his merry band of river-cleaners?

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January 1, 1970 edition

The common bamboo plant is a multipurpose, even magical plant. With its long, elastic stems and tough fibers, bamboo is easy to grow and requires little maintenance. Yet, today, bamboo can be processed into 1,500 types of products.
Indonesia is home to over a 10th of the world's 1,500 bamboo known species. Based on data gathered by the Directorate of Social Forestry Development in 22 provinces in 2014, community bamboo forest covers more than 180,000 hectares. If harvested, it could produce an estimated 541 million stems.

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January 1, 1970 edition

THE sun has not yet risen. Several young men sit shivering in sarungs in the lobby of the Labuhan Seaport, waiting for the arrival of boats that will carry them to Kasiruta Island in West Bacan, South Halmahera, North Maluku. Finally, the sun nudges over the horizon, and the waiting men jump up and head down to the quay. The majority are headed to the villages of Palamea and Doko. "They're here to mine agate," Amirudin, a 34-year-old speedboat driver, told Tempo in early February.

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January 1, 1970 edition

AS many as 20 carved motifs adorn the wall of Etek Nuraini's rumah gadang. The prominent use of red, green and yellow adds a certain brightness to the home, which sits in Nagari Sumpur, Tanah Datar regency, West Sumatra.
Among the carvings is a row of letters in broad 'S' shapes. "This motif is called itiak pulang patang (ducks returning home by evening)," says Mak Katik, an expert in ethnic Minangkabau culture from Sumpur, three weeks ago. The motif highlights the Minangkabau's belief in collective living. Ducks, he explains, live in groups. Wherever they go they walk as a unit, side-by-side.

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March 3, 2015 edition

Comic Relief-Papuan Style
Irham Acho Bahtiar made a sketch video to showcase Mop, a tradition of comedy native to Papua. The sketch will be made into a national movie sometime this year.

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February 24, 2015 edition

Frog Hero From Bandung
Djoko Tjahjono Iskandar is renowned for finding new species of amphibians and reptiles in Indonesia, especially for his groundbreaking discovery of a frog that gives birth to tadpoles.

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