Nearly three years after the Java earthquake of May 2006, IOM will
today hand over a new community centre to local government
officials in Selopamioro village in Yogyakarta's Bantul district
which will be used to help support income and livelihood generation
in the area.

The handover of the centre, funded by the multi-donor Java
Reconstruction Fund, will coincide with the graduation of 95
students from an IOM-sponsored small business development training
programme. The course, provided by Indonesian NGO Bina Swadaya, has
trained 95 of 100 registered beneficiaries to date.

"The support this centre will offer to livelihoods and income
generation in the area is very important because there is a lot of
poverty there. We particularly want to focus on post-harvest
processing activities among earthquake-affected farm households,"
says IOM Yogyakarta Head of Office Torsten Haschenz.

IOM has been working closely with Bina Swadaya and local
Chambers of Commerce (KADIN) to build business skills among the
earthquake-affected population.

The Organization will also provide exhibition space during the
Indonesia Act trade fair at the Yogyakarta Expo Centre May 20-24,
providing an opportunity for villagers from Pampang and Tuksono to
show their products and establish valuable business
contacts. 

Since the 2006 earthquake, IOM has worked with the government
and other stakeholders in the affected areas, helping nearly
210,000 people by distributing food and non-food relief items in
the immediate aftermath of the disaster, building more than 15,000
transitional shelters, and training people in earthquake-resistant
construction and disaster risk reduction. It is currently focusing
on supporting livelihoods, targeting 3,000 micro and small
enterprises.

For further information, please contact:

Johan Grundberg

IOM Yogyakarta

Tel. +62 811 266 140

E-mail: "mailto:jgrundberg@iom.int">jgrundberg@iom.int 

or

Jihan Labetubun

IOM Jakarta

Tel: +62-21-3983 8529

E-mail: "mailto:jlabetubun@iom.int">jlabetubun@iom.int