Photo: Power of Mama
In southwestern Borneo, the world’s third-largest island, a group of women in red shirts known collectively as the Power of Mama travel by motorbike to scout for undetected fires and encourage farmers to reject slash-and-burn agriculture. Fifty women in two villages in West Kalimantan were trained in basic fire-fighting methods and armed with smartphones. Dr. Karmele Llano Sanchez founded the program after noticing that while farmers didn’t heed her pleas to stop burning their fields, they did listen to their wives. Ibu Siti and Ibu Maimun, the first to volunteer to go out on patrol and talk to farmers, put the first two teams of women together in 2021. Women in other villages are now waiting for groups to be set up in their areas.“The fact that these women have been hidden behind kitchen doors for so long doesn’t mean they don’t have the power to do this job,” says Llano. “They are outstanding.”
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