The biggest challenge is fighting the fear within ourselves
Sri Anti’s story is one of growing confidence, shared learning, and quiet leadership. A massage therapist and domestic helper, she is also a mother, a community member, and a woman who once doubted her own voice. Through the Equality School, supported by Gema Alam and WE for JET, Sri Anti has built the confidence to take part in village life, challenge long-held norms, and help create change for women, people with disabilities, and her wider community.
Finding Her Voice Through Equality School
When Sri Anti first joined the Equality School, she felt confused and unsure. Discussions on gender, leadership, disability, and village systems felt overwhelming at first. But over time, and through repeated learning and reflection, things began to make sense.
What once felt like obstacles became achievements. Slowly, she realised she could understand, participate, and lead.
“Before, I wasn’t brave. I was embarrassed to go out, to talk in front of people. I would cry when I spoke,” she says. “Now, that fear is less.”
Sharing Knowledge Beyond Herself
Sri Anti doesn’t keep what she learns to herself. After every activity, she returns home and shares her experiences with other women in the village, discussing ideas, lessons, and plans together.
Her belief is simple: knowledge only matters if it’s shared.
Through this ripple effect, more women are becoming aware of their rights, their abilities, and their role in shaping village life, including women with disabilities, who were previously unrecorded and unseen.
Women, Disability, and Recognition
Before Equality School, disability was not formally recognised in village data. Today, around 70 people with disabilities are acknowledged, and village programmes are beginning to include women and other vulnerable groups.
For Sri Anti, this recognition is deeply personal.
“The point is to prove that even if I am disabled, I am able, like you who are non-disabled.”
Caring for the Environment, Together
Through WE for JET activities, Sri Anti and other women are also tackling environmental challenges in their village. Faced with growing waste problems, they are learning to separate organic and non-organic waste and exploring biogas production from household waste.
Organic waste is reused as fertiliser for village plants, while plastic bottles are repurposed to protect seedlings. Despite sceptical comments at first, neighbours are now showing interest and enthusiasm.
Their hope is clear: biogas in every hamlet, reducing waste, lowering household costs, and easing the economic burden on women.
Caring for the Environment, Together
Through WE for JET activities, Sri Anti and other women are also tackling environmental challenges in their village. Faced with growing waste problems, they are learning to separate organic and non-organic waste and exploring biogas production from household waste.
Organic waste is reused as fertiliser for village plants, while plastic bottles are repurposed to protect seedlings. Despite sceptical comments at first, neighbours are now showing interest and enthusiasm.
Their hope is clear: biogas in every hamlet, reducing waste, lowering household costs, and easing the economic burden on women.
Changing Roles at Home
One of the most meaningful changes for Sri Anti has happened inside her own home.
Before Equality School, all domestic work fell on women. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, even before attending community activities, everything had to be done first.
Now, roles are shared.
Her husband cooks. Her children wash dishes, clean the house, and care for one another. When Sri Anti returns from activities, the work is already done.
“Women don’t have to do everything,” she says. “And now, my family understands that.”
Looking Forward
Sri Anti’s journey shows that change doesn’t start with having confidence, it starts with being given the chance to grow it.
Through Gema Alam and WE for JET, she has gained the courage to step outside her home, speak up, and imagine a better future, not just for herself, but for her whole village.
And she’s not stopping there.
Oxfam acknowledges the support of the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
