Minister hands over socialempowerment aid to Tanimbar Islands' locals

Tanimbar Islands, Maluku (ANTARA) - Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini handed social assistance to locals in Tanimbar Islands District, Maluku Province, to improve their standard of living and empower them economically.

The assistance handed over by the minister to several small local businesses, comprised weaving tools and their materials, laying hens, boat engines, cages for aquaculture, and fish and coconut processing equipment, with the value totaling approximately Rp1 billion (US$60,878).

"This is a tool to process coconut into coconut oil. If people need cooking oil, they can buy it from here," Rismaharini remarked at the handover activity at the Tanimbar Islands District Hall on Wednesday.

The minister said her side would also provide training to the local community on ways to process coconut oil. Rismaharini stated that coconut in the Tanimbar Islands can also be used to produce coconut oil, which has a higher economic value as compared to copra, which the locals only produce so far.

"If coconut is just processed into copra, the profit is very low, but if it is made into cooking oil, the profit can be higher," she highlighted.



In addition, Rismaharini said that the ministry will teach fishers in the Tanimbar Islands to process fish into added-value products.

The minister cited as an example that the locals can process caught fish into frozen fish products.

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"Suppose you have 150 kg of fish, you need to sell 100 kg of them at the market, and the remaining 50 kg can be processed into food, such as fish balls, empek-empek, or shredded fish," she elaborated.

One of the recipients of the coconut processing equipment, Leobardus Batmomolin, 31, was glad and thankful to receive the tool.

"We are grateful to the minister who gave us a tool to produce coconut oil," he stated.