Creative entrepreneur Senida inspires her village

"Since I was 18, I have made creative things. I learned how to sew, how to cook, how to do home gardening, and how to sell," says Senida Gulo, 35, who is commonly called Ina Niki.

Ina Niki is Posyandu (integrated health post) cadre from Balodano Village in North Mandrehe Sub District, West Nias District. She was acknowledged by Wahana Visi Indonesia's Nias Operational Office as the most creative Posyandu cadre in 2013. Ina Niki's persistence in learning many things has made her as a model for other people. It can be seen in her group activity with other Posyandu cadres. Sukamaju, Ina Niki's group, produces shredded fish.

"If not us, who will do it?"

The group has 10 members and was established in September 2013. The hard work of each group member in producing shredded fish and selling the product since the very beginning has generated significant income.

The income is very useful for group members to finance their children's education. The presence of Sukamaju group has brought positive impact for Balodano Village. Ama Oni, one of local government officers says that Sukamaju's activities have raised people's enthusiasm to capture business opportunities.

"However, government support, especially in giving business permit, is still needed to make the shredded fish business go forward," says Ama Oni.

Like Ama Oni, Ina Niki expects her group will go forward and be able to produce high quality and well known shredded fish. Ina Niki and other Sukamaju's members learned the skill of producing shredded fish during a training facilitated by Wahana Visi Indonesia and Obor Berkat Indonesia (OBI) in 2012. Participants were trained how to cook nutritious food from ingredients available in their village.

Ina Niki always remembers the motivational words from the training, "If not us, who will do it?" These words encouraged Ina Niki and other group members to do good for their village.

The activities of Sukamaju Group are just the initial steps in making Balodano Village better.

*Written by Dominiria Hulu, Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Wahana Visi Indonesia at Nias operational office