Cooperation Program Asia

Background information

Mission 21's Asia program focuses on three key areas of work: Gender equality and overcoming violence against women and girls, securing the livelihoods of indigenous communities and promoting peaceful coexistence. We attach great importance to strengthening local actors so that they are professionally positioned in their structures and can use this as a basis to initiate social change and demand justice. These civil society partners contribute their skills and potential to promote sustainable development and peace. We have been working with grassroots organizations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong for a very long time. This has resulted in trusting relationships, in-depth contextual knowledge and well-established networks. This forms an ideal basis for implementing locally supported projects.

Program Goals

Overcoming sexualized and gender-based violence
The main aim of this focus area is to sustainably improve the situation of women and girls in the family and society. To achieve this, social disadvantage and structural violence must be overcome.
In rural areas of Indonesia and Malaysia, many families lack the money to provide their children with equal access to school and education. Raising awareness among parents and teachers, as well as educational scholarships, help to ensure that girls and young women can continue their education and contribute to breaking down traditional structures. Access to further education can, for example, prevent child marriage or exploitative working conditions. If necessary, a network of counselors and women's shelters helps affected girls and women with shelters, psychosocial support, legal assistance or income-generating further education.

The transnational action programme against violence against women includes local and regional organizations and interfaith networks that use advocacy campaigns to address political decision-makers and the general public in order to bring about positive change. Female migrant workers from Indonesia, who mostly work as domestic helpers or nannies in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Arab region, are in particular need of protection. Many suffer from undignified working conditions; violence and exploitation are not uncommon. The network of Mission 21 and its partner organizations enables coordinated support and educational work both in the emigration regions of Indonesia and at the destinations of the migrant workers: Women's shelters offer refuge and legal assistance, education and income-generating programs have a preventive effect and help with the reintegration of migrant women.

Safeguarding the livelihoods of indigenous communities
The livelihoods program strengthens disadvantaged indigenous communities in rural areas. Their cultural heritage is taken into account and rural development is promoted. The regional focus is on North Borneo in Indonesia and Malaysia and in Papua in eastern Indonesia. There are educational and income-generating activities at community level. Teenagers and young adults are given access to higher education outside the villages through scholarships and residential homes; the establishment of learning centers enables educational opportunities at community level.

Vocational training is a central component of the program. Traditional products such as wickerwork and textiles are further developed for various markets. Through direct sales and partnerships with regional trade organizations, the producers find sales for their products. Women are supported in organizing themselves into production and marketing groups. This enables them to benefit from the experience of successful women's groups and cooperatives. In addition, further training in sustainable agriculture and forestry takes place and land rights issues are addressed. The careful use of natural resources, especially forests, soil and water, is fundamental to the preservation of habitats. Protection against natural hazards caused by deforestation and extreme weather events has become increasingly important. This also includes the establishment of a disaster management system.

Promoting peaceful coexistence
The program work in the field of interreligious and intercultural cooperation pursues the goal of creating or maintaining a pluralistic and peaceful society. In Indonesia, as in Malaysia, minorities are often legally disadvantaged and sometimes subjected to violent attacks. This is why Mission 21 and its partner organizations intensively promote mutual understanding and oppose the development of socially divisive and radical views, especially among adolescents and young adults.

We work with religious and traditional leaders, promote tolerance and exchange in Koran schools, create interfaith meeting formats among youth and young adults and establish so-called peace villages. The advocacy platform in Indonesia brings together activists, grassroots organizations and institutions with a national reach and aims to address social tensions with an interreligious and interethnic approach. Through professional exchange, the participants identify common issues, develop working principles and materials and then jointly advocate for these issues through awareness-raising activities and public campaigns. In addition to the external impact, it is equally important that the organizations initiate internal change processes. A special focus of the program is on the socio-political crisis in Papua. There, Mission 21 is involved in a multinational commitment by church partner organizations to help those affected by violence.

Projects of the cooperation program

Education
200.1005: Strong civil society for sustainable development in Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong)

200.1010: Education for social change in Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong)

256.1004: Securing livelihoods: Sustainable development of indigenous communities in Indonesia and Malaysia

Peacebuilding
225.225.1007: Interreligious peacebuilding in Indonesia

225.225.1008: Women affected by violence in Asia: strengthening through empowerment (Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong)

On site

The theologian and prison chaplain Tobias Brandner has lived in Hong Kong with his family since 1996. He works as an Associate Professor of Theology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a part-time prison chaplain.

Since 2023 Karmila Jusup from Indonesia is the coordinator of the cooperation program. With two employees, she supports the implementation of the programme on site in Jakarta, accompanies our partner organizations and promotes cooperation.

Daniel Gloor Daniel Gloor has been teaching as a lecturer at Sabah Theological Seminary (STS) in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, since 1999. From 2009 to 2013 he was a lecturer at the Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana (UBL) in Costa Rica. Since 2013, he has been teaching again at STS.

Outreach in the PEP program

As part of Mission 21's PEP program, young experts regularly support the project work in Hong Kong.