Mother’s Day is May 10th this year ... but at Lutheran World Relief, we believe the love and hard work mothers bring to the world is worth celebrating every day.
Pagit Damaris Boru Tarigan plays a lot of important roles in her community in rural Indonesia. She is a mother of four children, a coffee and vegetable farmer, the wife of the village chief, and the head of her community’s garbage bank.
What is a garbage bank
Garbage banks are community-based waste collection facilities that convert household plastic and recyclable waste into income and improved sanitation.
Indonesia is a beautiful nation comprised of roughly 17,500 islands. As you might imagine, it is challenging to manage trash collection across so many separate spaces. As a result, household garbage is often disposed of poorly — ending up in rivers and oceans, causing floods by clogging drainage ditches, attracting disease-carrying pests and more.
With your support, Lutheran World Relief partners with the government of Indonesia to help communities like Pagit’s establish garbage banks so they can properly dispose of trash. It is called a “bank” because families who deposit recyclables receive a cash payment, based on weight, once the garbage bank sells the trash to a buyer.
Creating a healthier environment for her children — and all children
Pagit got involved with this project not just because of the potential for additional income — although it helps — but because she sees a great need to clean up the environment.
She says that before the waste bank was set up, “people littered everywhere, into the bushes. Waste was even dumped into our farm field.”
As a mother and a woman of deep faith, this pollution bothered her spirit. She was upset that pollution affects her the health and hygiene of her family and community. She hopes that her children — and everyone’s children — can inherit a world that is healthy, clean and well stewarded.
She explains, “It's like the saying, ‘Don't pass down tears to our children and grandchildren, but pass down water springs instead.’”
Pagit’s philosophy echoes the words of Christ in the book of Luke:
“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” - Luke 11:11-12 NRSVUE
Pagit works hard to pass down a healthier environment for the next generation, and she adds that taking care of the world is “an act of religious worship” for her. She’s even gotten her daughter, 18-year-old Agita, involved in operating the garbage bank.
Thanks to your compassion, Pagit and her neighbors have increased their incomes, improved their hygiene, and are equipped to steward God’s creation with care and competence.
This Mother’s Day, we are grateful to you — and for wonderful mothers like Pagit who work hard to give good gifts to their children and serve as leaders and role models in their homes and communities.