A village’s first female chief ended illegal logging with spies and checkpoints | Public Radio International
▻http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-30/villages-first-female-chief-ended-illegal-logging-spies-and-checkpoints
Hamisah never went to high school, and people say she used to be shy. But the flooding and the problems it was causing her community pushed her out of her comfort zone.
“I thought it was time for me to be brave and run for village leader,” Hamisah says.
There had never been a female village leader in the area. But Hamisah had some built-in support. She knew a lot of people through her work as a health aide, working for a local clinic to help people take their tuberculosis medication.
“Maybe because I’m a woman, I’m a mom, a lot of people came to me when they had a problem,” Hamisah says. “I listened and tried to suggest solutions. And so after a while, people started telling me I should run for office.”
She did, and she won, in 2013 becoming village leader of Sidorejo in the district of Sedahan Jaya.
Hamisah set to work trying to stop the illegal logging, beginning with the village’s women.
