Sulyadi (47 y.o.) commonly called Pak Sul spontaneously accepted the offer to join the seedling mentorship program. Sulyadi was interested to join this program because he wants to learn the seedling activity. He hopes that seedling can be an alternative livelihood as he cannot fully rely on his primary livelihood, split stones making.
In terms of livelihood, climate change has a significant impact for Sulyadi, who has mild difficulties in walking and holding. Daily, Pak Sul produces split stones used as materials for building construction. Everyday Sulyadi takes big to medium stones from a river near his house. Then, he splits these stones into smaller pieces needed for construction. He routinely collects these pieces while waiting for purchasers. In a day, he usually can produce 4 to 5 baskets with the price of Rp 3.500/basket. During the rainy season, these activities will be harder to do because of river flooding which can risk his life. Hence, Sulyadi hopes that seedling can substitute the slip stones making.
When Sulyadi was questioned about lessons learned from the seedling mentorship, he responded, “I practice setting up the soil bed, making a compound from soil, dolomite, and husk, putting the compound into polybags, sowing avocado and durian seeds, and lastly grafting. These skills are taught by Pak Kim and Mas Muh,” as he mentioned the mentors. With his active left hand and his unique way of walking, Sulyadi is able to hoe, cut bamboos, put the growing media into polybags, take the soil and bamboos, and splice the seeds.
Based on the assessment process held by the Village Working Group, seedling is an existing economic activity in the village that gets less-risk from climate change. Therefore, this sector will be an empowerment priority to create the more endure society through the program “Improved adaptation capacities of at-risk coastal communities in Indonesia and the Philippines through inclusive community-based actions and learnings”, a collaboration among ACCORD Inc, ASB Indonesia and the Philippines, and Bintari Foundation, and with funding support from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
On the long-term purpose, seedlings also optimize climate change mitigation and adaptation. Once the seeds are grown by other parties, it can rehabilitate the critical-land rehabilitation or create green areas in residences.
Furthermore, Seedling is relatively easy to be practiced by people with various disabilities. In Sriwedari, for instance, Pak Sul and other six people with disabilities are joining this mentorship guided by expert mentors who are the well-known seedling businessmen in the village. In addition, the existence of a seedling community in the village encourages better interaction between PwD and society. It is hoped that the mentorship participants having disabilities later can merge with the existing community.
Pak Sul shared that he has 2 daughters in the third grade of elementary school and in kindergarten having online study due to the covid19 pandemic. He plans to complete the mentorship activity, so that he can join the seedling business group to support the income for his family.