The major problem faced by people affected by leprosy in Indonesia is the stigma and discrimination from the society. Stigma and discrimination has led to the existence of people affected by leprosy as a marginalized group who do not have adequate access to the sources of public services which include an economic resource. Due to having experience living with leprosy, many members of PerMaTa must face the termination of employment or they are shunned and ostracized by some members of society so that they are unable to perform social and economic activities as appropriate, e.g. trade or sell food in public areas. This is because the strength of belief in the community that leprosy is an infectious disease is not curable and the disease is a curse to be avoided.
From the data of PerMaTa Indonesia in 2009, there were 75% from 100 members of PerMaTa in East Java do not have a permanent job and live in the low income. This condition causes most of them live in economic limitations. Based on this situation, PerMaTa Indonesia in 2010 develops the economic empowerment program called Social Economic Rehabilitation (SER). SER program is intended to improve the quality of economic life of people affected by leprosy.
There are 6 communities that become a pilot group at the first stage of the SER program; Jongaya Community in Makasar, Permata Kediri, Paciran Community in Lamongan, Jenggawah Community in Jember, Sumber Glagah Community in Mojokerto, and Grati Community in Pasuruan. In the implementation of SER program is focused on developing the group with the number of members between 10 to 15 people. The amount of fund is given to each community based on the result of need assessment of every group. The next step after the assessment is to build agreement among the members of the group. In this phase, the National Facilitator has an important role in encouraging every member to be able to participate fully in the preparation of the group consensus.
SER program as the first pilot program will be implemented within a period of over one year and is expected within the period; the fund managed by the group can be returned back and later can be distributed to other groups. Besides aiming to improve the quality of economic life of the community member, the SER program is also aimed at increasing the knowledge and skills of the group members in the field of organization and leadership. (cak)
