Aisyiyah: 99 years of women’s empowerment

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The second in our series of Aid Profiles is now online: on Indonesia’s longest-serving women’s organisation, Aisyiyah.

Aisyiyah currently works with the Australian aid program to deliver the Empowering Indonesian Women for Poverty Reduction (MAMPU) program, specialising in delivering maternal and reproductive health services. 

But this is not the first time that Aisyiyah has worked closely with Australia. After the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Aisyiyah was charged with running the Victim Assistance Program, providing substantial support to those who were badly injured or lost family members in the bombing.

Our Aisyiyah story, authored by freelance journalist Laura Jean McKay, is a profile in two parts: Part 1 discusses the organisation more broadly, and its engagement with MAMPU. Part 2 looks at the special support that Aisyiyah provided to the survivors of the bombing.

It’s a fascinating story of how Australia has worked together with an Islamic women’s organisation that is 15 million members strong, and of the impact of an act of terror both on the Australia-Indonesia relationship and on the individuals affected.

The Aid Profiles series forms a shortlist of nominees for the 2017 Mitchell Global Humanitarian Award – we’ll be publishing several more profiles in the coming months. 

You can comment on the Aisyiyah profile here or on the Aid Profiles site.

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Ashlee Betteridge

Ashlee Betteridge was the Manager of the Development Policy Centre until April 2021. She was previously a Research Officer at the centre from 2013-2017. A former journalist, she holds a Master of Public Policy (Development Policy) from ANU and has development experience in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. She now has her own consultancy, Better Things Consulting, and works across several large projects with managing contractors.

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