Project News

The 4th ACE Festival was held at Community Building (one of the 3 community buildings built by JICS support) in Lambung Village, Kecamatan Meuraxa, Banda Aceh City. ACE Festival is mainly aimed at promoting the products made by ACE groups and strengthening network among ACE groups. The 4th Festival was the last one implemented under current Project; thus, it was also aiming at finding out the way forward to continue community empowerment activities by self-efforts of communities with support from local government.
19 groups participated in the Festivals and out of them, 14 groups brought their products to sell. Each group got 1 booth for product selling. Their way to display, to pack the products, to promote products to customers became far better compared to the 1st ACE Festival. For example, organizing the table to be able to see each product well, putting many kinds of cakes in 1 pack to make it more attractive, putting information on their group to promote, and so on. Embroidery/sewing groups increased the variety of their products and attracted more customers. Local consultants made introduction video on activities of husbandry groups and it was shown during the Festival.
In the Workshop held on the 2nd day, ACE group members discussed how far they have achieved in terms of improvement in production quality, quantity, and amount of sales since they participated in JICA Project. JICA Expert Team made posters for each group to show the progress and result of questionnaire on product quality conducted at previous Festivals. Posters include graph and pictures to clearly show their progress, and their contents were presented in the Workshop. Most groups were eager to continue and expand their business even after the Project.
As JICA Expert Team has been transferring ACE program to local government, this Festival gained strong support from relevant local government departments in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar.
On 1st day, there was a product competition judged by local government. 6 local government staff judged ACE products on criteria such as taste, packaging, and efforts to promote. It became a good feedback for ACE groups. In RRI Radio Program, staff from BPMKS Banda Aceh and DPP Banda Aceh joined together with an ACE group member to discuss cooperation mechanism among ACE groups and local government after JICA Project.
On the 2nd day, staff from BPMKS Banda Aceh and Bappeda Aceh Besar joined Workshop to share achievement of ACE program and available support after JICA Project to community groups.
This strong involvement of local government in ACE program is essential for sustainability of group activities and community empowerment.
Approximately 200 people visited during 2-day of the Festival. In this Festival, to attract students to the Festival and to raise awareness of them on Bosai (Disaster Prevention), JICA Expert Team organized “Tsunami Pole Rally”. Utilizing Tsunami Poles built in and around Banda Aceh City by support from Japanese Embassy, JICA Expert Team made a leaflet to explain the concept of Bosai and purpose of Tsunami Poles together with some quizzes and distributed it to some Junior High Schools near Community Building. Students who came to the Festival with right answers could get vouchers that can be changed with products sold by ACE groups. In total 67 students got vouchers; thus, this Rally contributed to raising awareness on Bosai and to promoting ACE products.

Photo left:Opening speech by ACE group member
Photo right:Tape-cut by Ms. Illiza, Vice Mayor of Banda Aceh City

Photo left:Embroidery and sewing groups' booth with many kinds of colorful products
Photo right:Improved packaging and cakes in beautiful shapes

Photo left:ACE Members selling their cakes to Vice Mayor
Photo right:Husbandry group members showing videos of their activities

Photo left:Member sharing her group history to customers
Photo right:Many customers choosing cakes at a booth whose members all in the same costume

Photo left:Radio Live Talk Show at 5-6pm on Nov. 29th
Photo right:Member presenting their achievement in front of all participants

Photo left:Local government staff explaining available support to communities
Photo right:Camat Kecamatan Meuraxa giving trophy to the best ACE group