A large, neatly tied pile of burlap sacks sits at a cooperative office in Solok, West Sumatra. The aroma instantly gives away its contents coffee beans. In the backyard is an area reserved for drying.

A long drawn out dry season has led to serious cases of drought in many regions of Indonesia. The water levels of major rivers have dropped drastically, fields have baked dry, causing harvest failures everywhere. Severe water shortage has hit both rural areas and townships alike.

An End to Blast Fishing

Lisa Rumaikewi carefully took three brown threads and began braiding them, forming the start of a noken, the traditional Papua bag. Her house is normally empty during the day when her husband is at work and her three children are at school. Lisa said that is the best time to work on her noken. "The bag has to be meticulously crafted, only when I have free timethat's when I like to weave so I can focus on creating it with the best quality," said the 33-year-old woman.

Crowdfundingfinancing a project or a business by raising money from the publicis a relatively new trend in Indonesia. According to Fajar Hutomo, Deputy Director of Access to Finance at the Creative Economy Agency, it has only become popular five years ago. But actually, Indonesia is familiar to koperasi (cooperatives), a collective system of funding. "That's the original Indonesian crowdfunding," said Fajar.

After taking his breakfast, Immanuel Variant Rumende was in a hurry to get to class at the Peduli Bangsa Tabuji Elementary School in Tabuji village in South Halmaheraabout half a kilometer from his home. Some schoolgirls clad in red and white uniforms approached him, shook his hand, and they walked off together.