Encouraging Incentives

From October through February, Arfah Arifin, 40, often comes home empty-handed. Like other fisherwomen in Perlis hamlet, Langkat regency, North Sumatra province, she has to work side jobs just to make ends meetsometimes that means serving food to students at the elementary school, other times it means watering nurseries.

Arfah works long hours, and even then often comes up short on her children's school tuition. This forces her to pay her neighbors 'courtesy visits', where she asks for money. "The important thing is that food is always there," the mother of four told Tempo two weeks ago.