Gabriel Mone (45), a male carpenter who is diligent and painstaking transforming wood into household furniture that are useful according to costumers’ request or to fulfill his household’s need.

Aside from being a carpenter, in certain time, husband of Ayurin Mone Muloko with his family work in their paddy field to later be harvested as their whole year food supply.

But the paddy field only can be processed once in a year in traditional way using rain water and in his spare time during dry season he works in small furniture shop in the corner of his house located in Hoiledo, Maubesi Village, Middle Rote sub-district, Rote-Ndao Regency, NTT.

According to this father of five children, the work that he has been doing for 10 years has became his daily routine until the beginning of 2019, TLM Foundation through its village facilitator in Maubesi village started to spot unproductive land and water source in Hoiledo to be transformed into productive garden.

“Actually, I am a carpenter. I do farming just to spend my leisure in harvest season, I did not really know about growing vegetables. I became interested since TLM Foundation socialization about garden then I joined the group”, said Gabriel.

Together with TLM Foundation garden facilitator, Gabriel and other 11 households agreed to open productive garden in Hoiledo Vilalge and named it Enge Dale which means Dalam Satu Ikatan (literally translated as “In one Union) in Rote Language. This group consists of 12 members of 1 male and 11 females.

Eventhough Gabriel Mone who familiarly called Bapa Gab is the only male member among 11 females, he is very enthusiastic and so passionate involving in each activity of productive garden assisted by TLM GMIT Foundation.

Gabriel is really active and ardent from group forming, land processing, hydram pump and pipeline installation, plants planting, treatment to selling.

His enthusiasm is big, he is the “driver” of Hoiledo Productive Garden so other members depend on him for some heavy works they cannot do.

He had full role in installation of hydram and pipeline, fiber tank, fish pond, fiber tank to water the plants, garden house, as a conceiver of planting and keeper of garden’s cleanness.

“I am so happy because in the past, people in Maubesi did not know about hydram pump, but after TLM Foundation decided to help us, now I can install it myself, when it broke, I also can fix it, I have more experience”, explained Gabriel. Although it is already planting season, Gabriel still has time everyday to go to the garden and take care of his horticultural plants.

“I represent all the members want to thank TLM Foundation for assisting us learning new things, such organic vegetables, new technology like hydram, how to raise fish and other useful knowledge,” he expressed (Engky Thine)

Looked very enthusiastic, 7 youngsters involved in helping Oeupun weir rehabilitation in sub-village 01, Kiubaat village, South Amanuban sub-district, Southeast Timor Regency for two days on Wednesday and Thursday of last week

Aside from the reason that they are united as a one big family of TLM Foundation assisted village, Kuiltit group that has always been depending on weir water for their garden also realize that the sustainability of productive garden program is a part of village young people as next generation and as people in charge for Kiubaat village, especially Oeupun sub-village development.

The reason behind the rehabilitation of the weir is because the weir that has been built by TLM Foundation since 2016 was damaged by flood occurred in January and February 2019.

The weir was built to create enough elevation for hydram (hydraulic ram) installation to pump water from river near Kuiltit productive garden location.

“this weir is very important for our assisted farmers and students because it should be in good condition in order to pump water from river to garden and school. If it is damaged, people cannot water their plant.” Explained Defrid Banu, TLM Foundation Agriculture Facilitator who were involved in the work.

He also told that the rehabilitation project started from collecting river stones and sand in weir, putting the stones into gabion, repairing weir wall using cement mix and fixing pipeline that connect the weir to water tanks in school location (Primary and Junior High School) and productive garden.

In their spare time, the facilitator and TLM water staff who assisted the project tried to persuade young people in the village to get involved in productive garden routine activity in the future.

“I persuade them (young people) to join us by forming young farmer group and we from TLM Foundation will help by providing technical assistance so they can start to work and develop this village.“ Said Defrid.

Defrid also mentioned that 1 of 7 young men who were voluntarily helped rehabilitating the weir was a disable man.

The man who refused to mention his name was very industrious and persevering when collecting and carrying river stone using plastic sack as seen in the picture above.

Beside the man, students of Kiubaat Junior High School and fifth and sixth grade students of Oeupun GMIT Elementary Public School, assisted by some teacher were also involved in the project as they are the beneficiaries of TLM Foundation Clean Water Project.

Everyone who were involved looked so excited collecting stone around weir location as a part of their participation and hydram pump installation maintenance from river to Elementary and Junior High School location.

“the students are so happy to help because they have to take water using jerrycan for bathroom, hand-washing, and watering plants in school yard when hydram pump is damaged,” said Gustaf Dominggus Siki, Principle of Kiubaat Public Junior High School.

He also hopes that the rehabilitation project will finish soon and when the water can finally irrigate normally, TLM Foundation facilitator can help in organizing water distribution so It can be fairly distributed whether for productive garden or the schools.

Lapa Hihi (45) is one of seasonal farmers in Ngaru Kanoru village, Umalulu sub-district, East Sumba Regency.

In his daily life as a farmer, Lapa cultivates his land to plant corn, tubers, and nuts where the crops is used to fulfill his daily life while raising cows, pigs and buffalos around his house.

In 2014, TLM Foundation through its village facilitator chose Ngaru Kanoru as one of its assisted villaga which later formed productive garden group named “Mondu Lambi”

In the beginning, Lapa Hihi was not a member of TLM Foundation assisted group but after seeing group members’ activity who grew plants according to right Operational Standard Procedure such how to make seedbeds and fertilizer, proper plant treatment to harvest procedure. Then Lapa asked to join the group as member.

“at the first, I did not want to join the group because I think it was a waste of time and there would be no result so it is better for me to grow plants myself, I could produce more” confessed Lapa Hili.

“but when I look at them (group members), they worked on the garden properly and had good crops, I finally asked to join them and work with them”, he continued explaining.

Lapa Hili is also known as a diligent farmer in Ngaru Kanoru but with his limited knowledge on agriculture, he only planted plants he knew like cassava, nuts and corn.

After joining as member of productive garden in Ngaru Kanoru, now he has became so agile in agriculture, planting variety of horticultural plants that are new for him and community assisted by TLM Foundation fasilitator.

“we just knew about cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, California papaya, dragon fruits, beetroot, onion, “tuk tuk “onion and other new plants, I had no idea about the plant before” he said.

Aside from getting more knowledge and experience in agriculture sector, Lapa Hihi is also very active in helping TLM Foundation water project installation in Ngaru Kanoru like building water tanks and now he is the assistance cadre of TLM Foundation in Ngaru Kanoru.

Iapun mengungkapkan rasa syukurnya bisa bergabung dengan kelompok kebun produktif binaan Yayasan TLM yang sangat menolongnya bercocok tani terpadu dan menambah penghasilah keluarga.

“saya ucap terimakasih untuk TLM yang sudah ajar kami tanam-tanam dan bisa tambah-tambah penghasilan karena awalnya kami tidak tau, sekarang sudah bisa sendiri” Tutupnya. (Vembry Lomi)