Samdhana Institute is a non-profit organization working across Southeast Asia, with offices in Indonesia and the Philippines. People are the heart and soul of Samdhana’s programmes. Working closely together with Indigenous People and Local Communities. [IPLC’s], we empower individuals and groups to tell their story by supporting traditional knowledge and helping them gain additional skills and knowledge. We work in unison to make their voices heard for them to achieve sustainable development.

In the Philippines, Samdhana is supporting a young Indigenous Manobo, Reah to reach Senior Highschool. She is currently the first from her small community to finish from secondary education. Reah is currently taking up BS Agriculture. The campaign aims to have a consistent source of funds to be able to sustain Reah until she finishes her degree.

Also, Project 143 Love for Trees supports indigenous and local communities in Awang (Misamis Oriental) doing forest restoration work. Through this project, the Higaonon youth and women organizations in Awang approximately planted 3,000 native and fruit trees last year. We aim to plant 5,000 trees this year alongside more community partners.

In Indonesia Samdhana’a education is all about supporting female leaders in Easter Indonesia, and later expand to the other parts of Indonesia. The educational assistance is provided for women in the local communities to complete their upper secondary level schooling. This year Samdhana aims to provide educational assistance to 6 women community leaders.

In parallel, a tree planting campaign in Papua will be initiated through “Project Their Environment “300 trees will be planted surrounding Sentani Lake, Jayapura. To help the people who are planting and nurturing the trees, livelihood support will be given in 3 forms: provision of a female pig for hog-raising, building a fruit shop for tourist near Yotoro Hill, and lastly support for their children’s school fees.