Environmental Education and Capacity Building Program

People – Created in God’s image. We invest in people who would have little chance of making the leap. We teach, we coach, we support, and we guide – for their own benefit and a better world!

Environmental Education

Since its founding, the Eco Hapakat Foundation has been committed to raising awareness about environmental issues and working together with local communities to find practical solutions to local environmental problems.

In doing so, we place particular emphasis on promoting an understanding of the broader environmental context and interconnections. In many villages, people can generate a small additional income by reusing and recovering waste materials.

In 2002, the Eco Hapakat Foundation, together with Dr. Michel Gelbert from Switzerland, organized several waste recycling seminars. For example, participants learned how to make handmade paper and create various everyday products from PET bottles. By visiting different waste collection sites, new ideas were also developed for more effective waste sorting and material recovery.

Capacity Building Program

The Eco Hapakat Foundation invests in people. Throughout the foundation’s more than 25-year history, young individuals have repeatedly been selected for further education and, in some cases, trained abroad.

From 2003 to 2006, Dedy Yusuf received training and further education in Germany and Switzerland. As a trained cabinet maker, he was able to obtain the professional diploma of timber construction carpenter in Switzerland through an accelerated two-year program. He then completed an additional one-year advanced education to become a carpentry foreman. After successfully finishing this training, he returned to Indonesia.

In 2004, Wardana Amban attended advanced training programs in Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Manaus, Brazil. In cooperation with the PanEco Foundation Switzerland and Precious Woods Switzerland AG, he deepened his knowledge as a forester and specialized in the FSC eco-label certification of forest concessions. Since then, Wardana Amban has been working again in Kalimantan in the fields of timber utilization and reforestation.

Over the years, many other young people have also been personally supported, trained, and further educated by the Eco Hapakat Foundation—sometimes through informal training programs, and in other cases up to and including bachelor’s degrees inside Indonesia.

In the field of wood and furniture construction, many members of the Dayak community in particular have been supported and further trained according to their individual talents.