Author: GoldTeak Admin

Two years ago, Cibening village received some fund from PNPM Mandiri Perdesaan (National Program for Community Empowerment “Mandiri Pedesaan”) to fix the road (from main road to the village). The road was not finished completely because the fund was limited. The road was hardened by rocks only and without asphalt so when the rain came, the road was damaged again.

When the hot season starts, Cibening village turns to dry and the soil becomes hard. GoldTeak guardians collected rocks from the hill to harden the road between the village and the plantation.

Collecting plastic garbage

One of the CSR programs for the children at SD Cibeureum is “Go Green”, children learn how to reuse, reduce and recycle the things that they used. Children always pick up the plastic garbage wherever they found it.

Rainy season has given a lot of water to the trees. All teak trees, mahogany, Acacia and fruit trees look green. All trees have young leafs and look healthy. Rainy season did not make any problem to the plantation, this year only one teak tree was fallen because of hard wind. The well is full with water and makes the workers happy, and trees start flowering and fruiting too.

Rains did not damage the road; it is still good although it does not have much sand. The temperature is between 36 – 43 Celcius.

Cibening village will have a new Mosque; the land was a donation from Mr. Zaini. Village people included GoldTeak workers; they help to build on Fridays on their day off.

GoldTeak started to plant the trees in 1995 in Cibening village in 2 Hectares land, small piece of fields for the business but big ground to start. The plantation project was successful and after 2 years GoldTeak continued planting the trees (local teak trees and Solomon teak trees) on 20 hectares of land.

More knowledge made the project even more successful too, not many problems in maintaining and managing the plantation, and in 2005, GoldTeak opened another 18 Hectares land and planted the trees again, not only teaks this time around, mahogany and acacia but also some fruit trees like durian, mango, orange and rambutan.

Now, the trees grow very well and GoldTeak has another plan, to start a new business. After planting trees and now GoldTeak prepare the new business, create wood products. All of the business is to create a micro economy in Cibening village. From the community and for the community.

Goldteak plantation is located in Cibening village, we have to travel about four kilometers from the main road, pass the village and go up the hill. There are two bridges between the main road and the village. The bridges made of iron and concrete, cross over a small river. Most of the time, the river has little water, but in rainy season it will be full of water and sometimes the flood covers the land and the bridges.

Recently, Cibening village has been developing, many small trucks come to the village bring materials for building houses, usually small trucks come to bring crops like banana and cassava to the markets. 

There was heavy rain last month, the soil around the two bridges moved and made some damages to one of them. Now, the bridge is under construction, some donators donated materials like iron and cement and people hand in hand to fix the bridge.

GoldTeak always takes part in building or fixing the bridges, this time GoldTeak not only donated money to buy cement, but also sending the workers to collect the stones and fixing the bridge together with other people in the village. We hope the bridge will be completed this end of the month.

Visiting the teak trees at the pilot project at Bumisari village is always an exciting experience. The location is up the hill and it is about 6 km from the main road. Small truck or pick up or even the motor bike are good option to go there than the car. The trip was like an off road journey for about one hour.

Passing through the Palm Oil plantation and tea plantation is a nice scenery before we reach the teak plantation, the plantation is nearby a village. The teak trees now already 9 years old, they look healthy. Some of the trees are growing fast but some are still regular size. Hot season make the trees look dry but it is natural condition where the sun rise will reach the trunks and the soil too. The leaves are falling and soon after the rain is coming they change green. Local teaks dominate all the plantation. Pak Ganda, the guardian who take care the Bumisari teak plantation, is always happy when pak Zaini, the land manager comes to bring his salary and medicine for his family.

Visiting the project at Cibening village is another interesting trip. Driving an open jip with bumpy road is a challenge. The plantation still green from a distance, from west to east hill and cover almost whole the hill. The trees look healthy and big, most of the trees grow well. The teak trees and the fruit trees are blooming and fruiting. Acacia trees have their first flowers, land is covered by leaves and flowers and also seeds. Water is getting less but fortunately, workers can use the water from the water spring and the well.

This month, SD Cibeureum had some guests from Jakarta, they are two students from Jakarta International School. Omar and his sister Mae are American, they visited SD Cibeureum because they heard that the school has received many awards from many science competition. They came for a friendship, they interacted with other students in English and Indonesian. Omar and Mae prepared some games and gave presents to the students who could answer their games. They also donated tooth pastes and tooth brushes for the students.

This is the first time for SD Cibeureum to have a visit from foreign students, the students are very happy and they were motivated to learn English. At the end of the visit Omar and Mae promised to tell about SD Cibeureum to their friends in Jakarta.

Goldteak opens the opportunity to SD Cibeureum students to become global citizen.