Victim N, a housewife with a mental disability in Beriulou village, divorced her husband Jhon Sulaiman in 2018. The divorce occurred because victim N was sexually assaulted by an unknown person when she returned home from work from the fields at around 7 pm. N's efforts to convince her husband that she had been sexually assaulted were dashed because there were no witnesses who knew or saw what happened to N. In fact, to this day, the perpetrator is unknown.
Since this incident, their household life has begun to change. Jhon Sulaiman often did not come home, even if he did, there was no communication between them. Jhon began to abandon his responsibility to support N and his two children, Umar and Nursinta. In N's eyes, Jhon used to be a very good man. Whatever income he earns from his daily work is always set aside for kitchen shopping needs. "I feel that change is really happening in our lives," added N.
Jhon only works odd jobs on government physical development projects. He sometimes works as a worker carrying building materials. If there are no development projects from private companies or the government, he usually works fishing in the sea. "What he can do today for the lives of his wife and children, he always perseveres," explained N.
The situation and circumstances of N's family are getting worse. John never returned home. Jhon Sulaiman just left N and his two children. N often experiences verbal violence and is often treated impolitely by the residents where he lives. The stigma of being a victim of sexual violence and the disability she experienced made people increasingly ostracize N and her two children.
Finally, at the beginning of 2021, N took his two children to move from the village they lived in to Sagitsi hamlet, Nemnemleleu village. They occupied the house of a resident of Nemnemleleu village which had not been occupied by the owner for a long time. The owner of the house gave use rights to N and his children to be their residence.
N worked odd jobs in other people's fields and paddy fields to support his two children. This work was carried out because N did not have private land to cultivate. Meanwhile, Nursinta, her first child, who also has the same disability as her mother, helps N in the fields. Nursinta never went to school because of her parents' inability to pay for N's school fees.
In early 2022, N was sexually assaulted again. She was raped by two perpetrators. He was grabbed from behind when he was about to go into the room to change clothes after showering, around half past eight in the evening. After the incident, N reported this case to the head of West Sagitsi hamlet, Parsarion.
Parsarion also responded quickly by finding out and summoning the two alleged perpetrators and their families. Through family discussions with several residents and traditional leaders, the perpetrator was only fined 1 million rupiah.
Parsarion believes that this decision is actually unfair. He admitted that he did not want to take the case to legal action because N was more pensive and kept quiet at home after the incident.
The limitations experienced by N became an obstacle in itself in advocating for his case through legal channels. YCMM can only provide motivation to N through visits to his house with residents.
"YCMM has not been able to bring in a psychologist to monitor N's development. If we want to bring in a psychologist, of course we have to bring him in from Padang, we don't necessarily have the resources to bring him in. "That is an obstacle we face," said Tarida Project Manager Estungkara YCMM.
Has fallen on the stairs too
It doesn't stop there, Nirmawati, one of the YCMM inclusion cadres, reported that Umar, N's second child, who also has a mental disability, often received bad treatment from his seniors outside of school. Umar, who is currently in second grade at SD Negeri 02 Nemnemleleu, South Sipora District, is often beaten and threatened by his school friends when he wants to go home from school.
YCMM held discussions with Umar's school principal and homeroom teacher. Bilfesian Saogo, Principal of SD Negeri 02 Nemnemleleu admitted that he did not know anything about the violence that befell Umar. However, he emphasized that he would thoroughly investigate this case.
Umar's problems did not end there. It turned out that Umar was not registered in the Basic Education Data (Dapodik), because Umar did not have a Family Identification Number (NIK) and was not registered as a member of the N Family Card (KK).
Lack of understanding and outreach from the government, the very long distance from the village to the administrative center and high costs are the reasons. "Nevertheless, Umar was still accepted to study and we taught him according to the abilities we had," said Bilfesian.
Since that meeting, the school, village government and YCMM have agreed to help take care of Population Administration (Adminduk) N and her two children. YCMM also carried out intense coordination with the Head of Population Registration Services at the Mentawai Islands Regency Population and Civil Registry Service, Arnold Saragih. "It turns out that KK N has been deactivated for a long time," said Arnold.
YCMM finally requested that the KK N be reactivated and add Umar to the KK members and issue Umar's birth certificate. Until May 17 2023, the Mentawai Dukcapil Service handed over a new family card to N along with Umar's birth certificate.
Based on cooperation with the entire network, Umar has now been registered with Dapodik and has been proposed to the central government through the Ministry of Education to obtain the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP). N even received Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) from the Nemnemlelu Village Government through Village Funds amounting to 300 thousand and received once every three months.
Eti Kurniawati, N's neighbor, said that since YCMM and Nirmawati made a family visit to N's house, she was moved to care more about N and her children. Eti often motivates Umar to go to school diligently. "Even the principal often picked Umar up at his house to go to school together on a motorbike. "The principal also cut Umar's hair and bought a pair of school clothes for Umar," explained Eti.
The attention that the school principal and N's neighbors gave to Umar made the residents of Nemneleleu village slowly begin to change. Local residents and youth have started to monitor Umar when he comes home from school so he doesn't get violence from his friends or upperclassmen.
Now Umar is starting to feel safe playing with his peers around the principal's house and the neighborhood where he lives. The village government is increasingly paying attention to their existence through empowerment programs and village government assistance. Meanwhile, Nursinta, two months after getting married, died in July 2023 at the age of 20 due to a heart attack.
Chair of YCMM, Rifai, considers that the issues of people with disabilities, sexual violence against women and children, and the elderly are social problems that need to be prioritized to be addressed. They are a marginalized group that still lacks the capacity to fight for their basic rights.
They are also rarely involved in the planning process at the village level. "Even though they are invited, it is not certain that their aspirations will be accommodated in the program and budget in the village," explained Rifai.
YCMM is currently building a partnership network with the village government and district government so that marginalized groups in the three villages assisted by YCMM are able to understand their needs and prioritize them. In the future, YCMM hopes that they will become independent cadres, so that they can overcome the problem of sexual violence in groups in their respective villages.
