Presentation of the Foundation

The Lestari Mandorak Foundation was born after three years of field experience: since 2006, a relief project had been initiated by European and Indonesian travelers in Mandorak County, on the Western part of the remote island of Sumba, in Indonesia.
With no access to water or electricity, the Kodi tribe from Mandorak is struggling to survive with subsistence agriculture and fishing, its main income relying on a yearly cashew harvest.
Sensitive to this endemic situation, the travelers have teamed up with local partners to help the Kodi people improve their life conditions, meanwhile preserving their ancestral culture.
In three years, many concrete actions have been implemented – new roads were built to facilitate trade and fill in the gap between the Kodis and the rest of Sumba, a water well was dug for accessing clean water, a primary school was opened to teach the Indonesian language to the children…
The Kodi tribe has also been subjected to malaria screenings on a regular basis and they were given mosquito nets to fight the plague.
In the meantime, these enhancements have come with education to preserve their culture, along with their original land in West Sumba.
The relief teams have provided nets to avoid bomb fishing, responsible for destroying the ocean bottom; they have built a traditional Kodi house as a headquarters, training the youngest workers how to perpetuate their ancestral traditions (which are threatened by modernity, like their unique crafts, horses game, etc.); likewise, teaching waste management is a part of their continuous effort to avoid pollution in West Sumba.
In 2009, the Lestari Mandorak* Foundation was created to formalize the help to the Sumbanese Kodi tribe in the fields of health, education, culture and development, and offer the possibility to other partners to commit in their relief program.
A lot is yet to be done.
*from “Lestarikan Mandorak = Protect Mandorak”
I. Health
Water is a key factor to enhance the Kodi tribe’s development.
Along with a healthcare education of the basics of hygiene and nutrition, providing access to water is the first step paving the way for the Kodis to improve their daily conditions.
The Lestari Mandorak teams have dug the first well in Mandorak in 2008. The impact over the tribe is already conspicuous. As a next step, an irrigation system is on the way to enable the Kodis to grow their own food resources.
The second big step aims at limiting the malaria’s devastating epidemic, its omnipresence being the greatest burden for all generations.
The Lestari Mandorak Foundation has undertaken regular
screenings to detect and help the infected people.
While a screening program is already ongoing, with prevention measures and regular distributions of mosquito nets to the population, such a widespread disease would require most ambitious means, not to mention the help of well-experienced NGO.
According to the Malaria Foundation International, “malaria and fear of malaria prevents investment and tourism into new
regions, further hampering economic development”.
II. Education
While the Kodi people speak their own dialect, the future of their children is depending on their chance to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia, spoken by 200 million people in Southern Asia (4th spoken language worldwide).
The Lestari Mandorak teams have been working on two levels; on the one hand, they opened a primary school in 2007 to allow children from the Mandorak County to be taught both in their language and in Bahasa Indonesia. On the other hand, they have been supporting the existing schools in the Mandorak area.
Indeed, the few schools in West Sumba are poorly staffed and furnished, whereas they represent a unique opportunity for the Kodi children to know a better life than their parents.
A financial and material support is much needed to improve their facilities and provide the pupils with tuition material (pencils, books, sports equipments, etc.).
III. Culture
According to anthropologists, the Kodi culture is the closest observed living culture to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Burial in megaliths is a practice that has survived to this day in Sumba. Their techniques to transport and carving stones also goes back to the origins of prehistory.
A living testimony of their ancestral culture, the Kodi traditional houses with alang-alang thatched roof stand proudly in the wild landscape of Mandorak County. From the ceiling to the rooftop - not to mention the pillars - every single wood element in a Kodi house has a spiritual meaning reflecting their original animist beliefs.
The Kodis’ craft and art forms are unique in the world. The Lestari Mandorak foundation aims at encouraging and promoting them.
The style of weaving of their traditional ikat, a hand-fashioned fabric famous in India and South-East Asia, is much sought by museums and collectors all over the world.
Likewise, horses are central in the Kodi way of living.
Besides being their first transportation mean, horses are key players in the traditional Kodi war games where they challenge each other with spears (the Pasola).
IV. Development
The Lestari Mandorak Foundation’s ambition is to help the Kodi people find an economic balance.
Mandorak County is likely to welcome a promising type of industry: eco-tourism.
The idea is to open the Kodi villages to visitors who would agree to share their daily life, respect their rhythm and natural environment, while enjoying a large choice of activities (snorkeling, hiking, horse-riding, etc).
While discovering Mandorak County’s shores, lagoon and landscapes, these eco-friendly tourists will get introduced to the Kodi culture thanks to an organic farm offering local food and traditional Sumbanese meals, let alone organized horse games, tribal music or a visit to the handicraft shop.
With new infrastructures such as solar panels, energy would no longer be an issue. Bringing such modern technologies would be a huge step toward helping the Kodi improve their economic situation, while preserving their culture and promoting an eco-friendly development.
The financial resources collected by the Foundation would benefit directly to the Kodi tribe.
With the blessing of the Sumbanese officials, the Lestari Mandorak Foundation has sought some land to protect the wild life against possible speculation.
The Indonesian authorities have conceded the status of Natural Park to a part of the foundation’s territory.