Building Resilience of Vulnerable Activist in Indonesia (BRAVE) is developed out of concern for violence, discrimination, and risks of criminalization towards LGBTIQ community in Indonesia, particularly toward transgender community who have layers of vulnerability due to their gender identity and gender expression. This project specifically aims to empower and protect Transgender Human Rights Defenders (HRD), who are experiencing multidimensional vulnerabilities not only because of their gender identity and gender expression but also because of their identity as human rights defenders who are at the forefront in defending and advocating for the rights of transgender community in Indonesia.

In developing this project, Transformation Consortium has divided roles in carrying out each activity and short-term objectives to each consortium member, according to the area of expertise and experience of each organization. Division of roles are as follows; Jaringan Transgender Indonesia (JTID) will be working on short term objective 1 (Enhanced capacity for Transgender Human Rights Defenders, internal consortium and support system related to protection mechanism), the Crisis Response Mechanism (CRM) will focus on short-term objective 2 (Establishment of a protection mechanism for Transgender Human Rights Defenders), perEMPUan will focus on the short term objective 3 (Increased support from society toward transgender community), and Sanggar Swara as the lead applicant (host) will be handling this project’s management, reporting and audit budget. Through this division of roles, we are certain to see each activity implemented and measured properly since it will be managed by organisation with the appropriate set of expertise and experience.

The Trans-school Project is an effort to increase the independent and empowered individual transgender women community and improve the community’s bargaining position in the midst of community life in achieving program success at the program outcome level, namely the transgender community of young women who are empowered through participation in 18 trans-school alumni who are actively voicing community rights to others. wide community. To realize public acceptance of the trans woman community. The success of this project is also based on the participants’ basic knowledge regarding SOGIESC, basic human rights, feminism, SOGIESC-based violence, basic advocacy, and field visits to state human rights organizations such as Komnas Perempuan and the LBHM network organization. The selection of materials is also packaged with language & terms that are easily understood by the community, besides that the core facilitator is also part of the LGBTIQ community, namely Rebecca Nyuei who is also the winner of Miss Trans-school 2014 and Edison Butar Butar is a community and CRM program manager. Meanwhile, the resource persons for field visits are part of the Komnas Perempuan Commissioner and also the Director of LBHM who has often collaborated with the community and supported Swara’s struggle. The judges involved are all trans-school alumni who specialize in community work such as Anggun Pradesha, Abel miss trans school. 2018 and also Alegra Wolter as a doctor and part of the trans woman community.

Assessment process in selecting the winner:

1. Pretest and posttest during regular class as much as 30% of the weight of the assessment
2. Regarding the motivation and activity of participants in the regular and quarantine class process, the weight of the assessment is 20%
3. Case analysis and decision making as much as 40% of the weight of the assessment
4. Inauguration involving judges (AlegraWolter,Anggun Pradesha, Abhel Bilbina) as much as 10% of the weight of the assessment.

The above strategy succeeded in achieving significant changes in participants’ understanding of each material, this can be seen from the pre-test and post-test of each participant which we will also attach to this report. In addition, several participants who later became alumni were involved in the wider movement. For example, Asya as the winner of miss trans-school 2020 plays an active role and is trusted as the coordinator of the Transgender Day of Visibility event which was initiated by organizations and individuals of the transgender community in Indonesia on March 31, 2021. And is also a representative of the Indonesian transgender community in the TDOV 2021 campaign organized by APCOM. And several alumni had the opportunity to represent the swara studio in networking with allies.

Meanwhile, this project also has an impact on efforts to accept society’s acceptance of the transgender community through the Community Movement campaign in an effort to reduce stigma and discrimination, two trans school alumni were involved in a joint video campaign with LBHM for the issue of discrimination in the workplace and discrimination by families. Of course, it will expand revenues which cannot be measured directly, but can affect the wider community, but this is also very dependent on the socio-political conditions in Indonesia.

In addition to achievements, of course there are lessons that we can take from the project experience, for example in the midst of a pandemic situation we can learn how to help the trans community in disaster issues to be more inclusive of the community, then there are still many lessons in using media or online communication platforms to facilitate the process. considerations starting from the participant’s devices that do not support and the effectiveness of the learning process during the session, but things are still a consideration in carrying out activities during the pandemic.

The trans woman community always faces challenges in realizing their rights as citizens, limitations and narrowing of space always affect not many donors who provide the trans woman community in managing the Voice program is one of the few donors who prioritize community involvement from the preparation of implementation and decision making in each program I hope that spaces like this will always be open so that more and more Transpuan communities and individuals will be empowered through the next program.

Miss Transchool Inauguration

LGBTI people, and particularly the transgender community in Indonesia are often exposed to violence, discrimination, criminalization and face layers of vulnerability due to their gender identity and gender expression. Perkumpulan Sanggar Swara is a community-based organization led by young transpuans or transgender women. Its composition is 100% of transwomen with a vision of building an empowered and independent transgender women’s (transpuan) community, within the framework of human rights, gender justice, and sexual diversity. The organization focuses on 4 work pillars, namely: education, advocacy, organizational strengthening and crisis management.

To help mitigate the challenges of the transpuan community, the organization developed the Building Resilience of Vulnerable Activist in Indonesia (BRAVE) project with the aim of empowering and protecting transgender human rights defenders (HRD), who experience multidimensional vulnerabilities not only because of their gender identity and gender expression, but also because of their identity as human rights defenders at the forefront of defending and advocating for the rights of the transgender community in Indonesia.

The Transgender Women School (Transchool) has been a key initiative of this project. It is an alternative school for young transwomen that combines a series of in-class training, field visits, quarantine and inauguration. It is an effort that raised the independence and empowerment of individual transgender women and improved the community’s bargaining position in the community. The project’s other achievement is that a transgender community of young women were empowered through working with 18 transschool alumni who are actively voicing about the rights of their community to others.

The success of Transchool can be measured by two things. First, Transchool is an ongoing program that has become Swara’s main program since 2010. The annual program has organized as many as 200 transgender alumni from all over Jabodetabek and the 2018 transschool alumni came from nine provinces in Indonesia. Secondly, transschool has succeeded in increasing the capacity of transwomen related to SOGIESC, human rights, the roots of oppression and self-acceptance. In addition to capacity building, transschool alumni become more visible and active in organizations/communities in their respective regions and become human rights defenders on various issues. 75% of Swara’s management for the 2018-2022 period are transschool alumni from different batches.

The success of this project was also based on the participants’ basic knowledge regarding SOGIESC’s basic human rights, feminism, SOGIESC-based violence, basic advocacy, and field visits to state human rights organizations such as Komnas Perempuan and the LBHM network organization. The selection of materials is also done in language and terms that are easily understood by the community.

Members of the LBGTI community have been at the center of this project. The core facilitator of the project, Rebecca Nyuei was the winner of Miss Transschool 2014! The judges involved are all transschool alumni who specialize in community work.

This project has an impact on efforts to have society accept the transgender community through the Community Movement campaign, an effort to reduce stigma and discrimination. Two transschool alumni were involved in a joint video campaign with LBHM on the issue of discrimination in the workplace and discrimination by families.