Penajam Paser Utara – PT Pertamina Hulu Kalimantan Timur (PHKT) continues to support the empowerment of women through its various CSR programs. PHKT focuses especially on women entrepreneurs, or ‘womenpreneurs’, who significantly contribute to building their communities’ self-reliance in social, economic, and environmental conservation areas.

Senior Manager Relations Farah Dewi explained that to build an economically strong and self-reliant community, particularly women, PHKT supports the development of local enterprises and the competitiveness of local talents. PHKT organizes training activities to improve organizational and production capacities. “We continually instill the value of self-reliance, whether it’s through our regular facilitation programs or monitoring activities, as we want to improve production and marketing performance so that the products are competitive,” Dewi said.

During the pandemic, many MSMEs, including those that had joint business activities (KBU), had to fight to keep their KBUs open for business. They include a women business group called Kelompok Usaha Wanita Bina Bersama and Lou Putri Petung (LPP) Cooperative, both under PHKT’s assistance and based in Penajam Sub-District, Penajam Paser Utara (PPU) District.

The leader of Kelompok Usaha Wanita Bina Bersama, an enterprising group that sprung from Kampung Baru village, is Siti Rukiyah. She has been engaged in mangrove-related activities since 2002. Knowing the crucial role of mangroves for the ecosystem, Rukiyah and her family started taking their time on the weekends to plant mangrove trees. Mangrove forest is known as natural wave breaker and can prevent coastal erosion, effectively protecting the community from environmental and ecosystem damage.

Since then, her group has carried out various activities in sustainable mangrove conservation, such as mangrove planting, seeding, and replanting. Mangrove trees and fruits can also be processed to generate products with economic values using appropriate methods, such as flour, food items, and syrup. The products are marketed to customers in and outside of PPU. To expand the market, mangrove-based products have also been brought to exhibitions and promoted on social media channels.

Rukiyah’s dedication to sustaining, conserving, and cultivating mangrove has earned her the Kalpataru Award, an award for individuals with valuable contribution to the environment. Rukiyah received the award in the Women Business Group category from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2020. In 2022, on Kartini Day, Rukiyah received another award for her environmental work from the Organization of Solidarity Action of Advanced Indonesia Cabinet (OASE).

Meanwhile, Salbiyah leads LPP Cooperative in Tanjung Tengah village. LPP’s members produce a range of food items for PPU visitors to bring home, such as cooking oil, palm sugar, a variety of chips, and seaweed-based products. During the pandemic, LPP pivoted to online selling. The group continually innovates to improve its product and package quality to give the items a longer shelf-life, even when the products have to travel across the archipelago to reach their buyers.

Salbiyah is also part of the Maggot Lestari Group and develop BULATIH, a cultivation program of black soldier fly (BSF). BULATIH is a PHKT community empowerment program carried out in the Southern Operational Region (DOBS); the program focuses on processing and utilizing biowastes using BSF colony. The processing output is maggot – maggot and maggot derivatives can then be used as alternative livestock feed.

Having received Green PROPER rating for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021, PHKT DOBS was selected as a candidate of Gold PROPER rating in 2021 for its green initiatives, including BULATIH. According to Salbiyah, before BULATIH was initiated, food waste had been a problem. “After we had BULATIH training, we can sell the maggot products and revenue from those sales contributes to our cashflow,” she said.

As part of their product development efforts, and to introduce their products to the national market, Rukiyah and Salbiyah participated in an Exhibition of National Movement for Indoensian-Made Products (GBBI) in East Kalimantan as well MSME exhibition, SMEXPO 2021 in Samarinda Convention Hall, organized by SOE House in October 2021.

PHKT, part of Pertamina Subholding Upstream Regional 3 Kalimantan Zone 10, continues to invest in capacity building and community empowerment. Its support to women entrepreneurs is also part of PHKT’s contribution to Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – gender equality and empower all women and girls. In addition to its various CSR programs, PHKT incorporates Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles to realize safe, reliable, compliant, and green oil and gas operations.