Category: News From The Field

Eid al-Fitr is a celebration of the victory of faith after fasting during the month of Ramadan, the holy month to train discipline & to control the life priorities.

Eid al-Fitr is also popularly called Lebaran or means having a wide heart. So besides asking forgiveness to Almighty God, also apologizing & forgiving others.

The Lebaran tradition is also interpreted as going back home, to visit the parents, families, relatives, neighbors or friends. Lebaran means also festive season, people always prepares cookies and traditional meals, every regents has different tradition. It also means people wear good & nice clothes, not always new but the best one they have.

Workers at the Goldteak plantation also did the same, after fasting for a month, they celebrated Lebaran with their families & relatives. Lebaran bonus/allowance and salaries were given by the company early and they use it for Lebaran preparation. Cibening Village was colorful and full of joy.

“Happy Eid Al-Fitr 1440 Hijri”

There is a different feeling of joy when we see green and healthy trees and see happy workers. Passing through the trunks of the Teak trees and feeling the wind blowing make Summer is warmer.

When the rainy season arrives, the leaves of Teak have greened the hills, the water flow between the trees will end up in the river which continues to be brought to the villages below.

The trees grow bigger and look very healthy, there are no signs of being attacked by the disease. The task of workers who clean weeds that grow taller, makes the trees relieved to breathe. The soil is open to receives sunlight and water and nutrition is more than enough to make the trees grow naturally.

The happiness of the workers is when they realize that they have made the trees grow healthy and big.

Basically Cibening’s land is dry, the soil consists of mixed stone and sand. And the plants grow on it do not look green. People plant padi, cassava and corn to get income. They plant special padi, Gogo Rancah, which grow in dry season on the hill with little water. They plant cassava and corn together but they harvest in three months and the cassava they have to wait until 8 months.

The hill was originally covered with plants and natural wild trees, has turned green by Teak, Mahogany, Acacia and fruit trees Mango, Rambutan and Durian. At the end of the summer, some hills appear brownish but when it rains the hill turns green.

Cibening Village is not an arid village anymore, there is water flowing in the summer. People like to grow cassava, corn and papaya to support their income in addition to planting rice in the fields.

The rain fall every day, during the day or night. Water runs from the hill to the river and when the water brings stones, the river banks can not protect themselves from erosion.

The bridge without borders has been partially broken, and now the bridge with the barrier is broken too, people can not pass the bridges by car.

The community makes a shortcut under the bridge to be able to cross the river by two-wheeled vehicles, while waiting for the regional government to release the development fund.

The two bridges in the middle of the entrance to the village are very vital, because people should pass the bridges to enter the village.

The community hopes that the government will immediately release the funds to rebuild & fix the broken bridges.

This year the climate and weather are still not friendly with fruit trees. Almost all fruit trees are
blooming, but not all of them become fruit. The strong wind factor makes the flowers fall out and the beginning of the rainy season makes young fruit fall out too.

Healthy trees are strong enough to hold the fruit. Some of Rambutan and Durian trees survived to hold the fruit but unfortunately they are not enough to sell.

Some of Durian are found holes made by squirrels and bats. The fruit are rotten because of caterpillars & maggots.

Expecting to the good weather, rain can give more water to the soil and make all trees healthy and green. Fruit trees will be healthier and give more fruit this year.

Village Funds are sourced from the State Revenue & Expenditure Budget intended for Indigenous Villages and Villages, released through the Regency / City Regional Revenue & Expenditure Budget. This fund is used to finance government administration, development and community and community empowerment.

At present the Village Fund program has been implemented in Cibening Village to fix 500 meter road or IDR 100 million. It is expected that development in Cibening village can improve the economy, education and health of its people.

The local government together with the private sector built Cibening village. Micro economy has been supporting by Goldteak in planting trees, and empowering the community, also by Local governments in fixing the road.

Before Goldteak planted the trees, Cibening village looked brown every hot season because the village did not have water, and part of it was a slope overgrown with little rubber and bamboo trees.

Today, after more than ten years, the hill is green, even though summer the hill does not look brown but it looks green.

PT GoldTeak Teak Plantation has also restored the ecosystem, several species of birds, monkeys, wild pigs, snakes and frogs that were previously rarely seen and heard.

The plantation produce fresh air and fresh water, some wells do not dry out during the dry season. Cibening villagers feel a great change in nature that is better, cleaner and more fertile.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Bandung informed that currently the West Java region is generally still at the end of the dry season. But in some parts clouds appear and the weather is very cold at night. Even though weather is still very hot in the afternoon, there is a possibility will rain in the transition period. The intensity of the rain is still mild and moderate, and will start to be big and heavy in the middle or end of November.

At the end of the dry season, fruit trees begin to bloom and the fruit will appear; Mango, Rambutan and Durian. Unfortunately strong winds often make flowers or fruit fall out.

The dry season has begun since the beginning of September, the wind that blows also feels hot.
Teaks look brown, and the soil feels barren because the dried leaves are falling.

The well water starts to dry up, even though there can only be a bath and wash around. The
workers take water to cook and drink in the spring located on a hill.

When the rainy season almost arrived, many farmers in Cibening village burn the remains of their
stem, so that when the rain fall, their rice fields are ready to be planted with rice seeds. This
burning is a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation, but for the
security, this has been banned and village heads often give counseling to farmers not to burn.

Goldteak workers conduct day and night supervision to prevent fires in the area. To avoid a fire,
things that need to be prepared have already been done. Alternating guards, making simple tools
to extinguish fires, also provide knowledge to neighbors who have fields around the plantation
not to burn.

For an employee and company, work safety is the main thing. Occupational Health and Safety or OSH is also regulated in the Manpower Act. Companies and workers alike must know about work safety in accordance with applicable standards, one of them is by using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

For workers who work in Teak plantation they also need PPE like boots and gloves. Boots are needed because they work on uneven ground, rocks, dry / wet and avoid snake attacks. Gloves are used at the beginning of planting when caring for trees and fertilizer or insecticides.