Meet the lady farmers who produce coffee and breastfeed their babies!

Photo: The carefree atmosphere during coffee grading time. Photo Glory Sunarto/Mercy Corps

Earlier this month, I got a fulfilling experience to do a new assessment on a potential new program involving coffee farmers in Central Aceh district and its surrounding area. When the Indonesia Country Director, Sean Granville-Ross, assigned me on that task, I was thrilled, not just because I was going to go to the infamous beautiful highland in the heart of Aceh, but to me it also sounded like: a new program!

The excitement to me, personally, because this would be the first time to do an assessment from scratch -- for a new potential program, while beforehand I have been involved in many assessments for our education and community development programs, which meant the program was already set up.

But this time was totally different! We are the one who should decide what kind of program intervention to propose based on our field assessment result. Oh, and I said we, because I was lucky enough to do this assessment with my former manager, Laura Bruno, who now is the Senior Program Officer for Southeast Asia. Awesomeness!

Photo: The village natural beauty with coffee land along the roadsides. Photo Glory Sunarto/Mercy Corps

The districts of Central Aceh and Bener Meriah were the target areas to assess which well known as the area of coffee producers. Most of the populations are coffee farmers. We were not seeking particular data on their regular coffee business, but assessing their other potential sources of income through other livelihoods they have and also how their life as coffee producers can support them in the need of daily nutrition, food security, clean water, and sanitation access. That included the level of the lady farmers’ awareness and behaviour on breastfeeding.

Apart from having 10 different meetings with some government institutions and cooperatives in those areas to gain information on financial literacy and more economic development aspect, we visited this one village of Kelupak Mata, in Kebayakan sub-district, in Central Aceh. The village was hidden behind the hills to reach it we had to drive up a steep cliff. But it was worth it, since it was a very beautiful village with beautiful people who were living there! The goal was to touch base and find out the real example of their access to health facility, sanitation and breastfeeding behaviour!

So, there we were, having a informal group discussion with a small group of coffee farmers led by Mr. Isri while sipping the superb morning coffee of Gayo Highland. Afterward, his wife, Mrs. Nusrawati, took us for a walk to see the health clinic facility and had a chat with a pregnant mother who is also a coffee farmer, Mrs. Jasmani. She told us about how the village midwife and the health clinic are continuously campaigning and giving information about how important is exclusive breastfeeding and also how she strongly believes that breastfeeding her baby is the best choice. She opposed the idea of giving formula for her baby, other than it cost a lot -- for a poor villager like her -- also it’s not as healthy as breastmilk.

Photo: Glory Sunarto/Mercy Corps

Interestingly, we also met a group of women who were doing the coffee grading. The atmosphere at the place was so cheerful and carefree. They all welcomed us warmly, so we sat down with them and asked about the breastfeeding behaviour in the village. They unanimously said that they all breastfeed their babies even when they are working at the coffee plantation.

“We hang the baby on the nearby tree, so whenever they are hungry we can just stop working and breastfeed them,” explained one lady, just as what Mrs. Jasmani told us earlier.

It was only three days of assessment, but it was intense, and we know exactly what we are going to write down on our concept paper. Those cheerfully non-stop giggling group of ladies inspired us the most!

Photo: The beautiful lake of Danau Laut Tawar -the icon of the highland. Glory Sunarto/Mercy Corps