Women get down to business in Aceh

In Ibu Yuniarti's class, 20 middle-aged women prepare themselves for the rough-and-tumble world of the free market.

Dividing themselves into small groups, they plow through a Harvard Business School-style case study on a proposed motel project in an Indonesian village. They study every detail - the finances, the marketing, the pluses and minuses - and write their recommendations in neat columns on sheets of butcher paper and present them to the class.

One group says the project is wonderful, because it will provide employment to local villagers. Another group declares the project unworkable: No one has surveyed the location and whether it would be attractive to customers.

It's just another day at one of the more innovative projects in Banda Aceh, Start or Improve Your Business, a United Nations-funded effort to get people back on their feet through self- employment. With so many people left homeless by the Dec. 26 tsunami, such a class might seem premature, but UN officials say the key to recovery in this region is to get the economy going again, and giving business people the tools and the financing to generate income for themselves and employment for others.

"This program is about equipping entrepreneurs to prepare themselves for starting businesses," says Peter Piawu, a master trainer for the International Labor Organization, the UN agency that is funding the class. "Of course, running a business is always risky. But when you give them all the information, then you can take reasonable risks in starting a business."

For those outsiders who are unused to Indonesia's relatively moderate Islamic culture, it may be surprising that half of the participants in this program are women. (A separate program for men and women is being run by the Islamic Students Association.) But women have always been active in the business community of Banda Aceh. Some have also been active in politics. One of the last and most successful sultans of Banda, before the arrival of the Dutch East India Company, was a woman.

Most of the women in this classroom, for instance, were accomplished businesswomen before the tsunami. Cut Humry ran a catering business; now she wants to open a cafe. Sri Anitha owned a phone-booth and faxing business that was wiped out by the waves. Many owned fashion businesses and embroidery shops, but one woman, Emi Yuliani, owned a gas station that she wants to rebuild.

For most of these women, the biggest plus is their business experience. Most are natural optimists who have confronted their worst nightmare, and survived.

Usually, their biggest obstacle is not male chauvinism or cultural restrictions, but lack of basic machinery. Most lost all their equipment to the surging waters that pulverized Banda's business district. Many also lost some of their top employees. Starting over is a dream they can believe in. But without money and equipment, it is still only a dream.

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