Resilience is not a quality you have — it is a practice you build, together, over time. Since 2019, Kebun Kali Code has been building it: through a pandemic, through floods, through the slow emergency of climate change, through years when nothing was certain except that the community would show up.
When Covid came, they made sanitiser
In 2020, when the pandemic arrived and supplies ran short, the community produced 500 bottles of organic hand sanitiser and distributed them for free — in collaboration with Merbabu farmers who contributed one full truck of vegetables. Not waiting for aid. Making it themselves. That is resilience.
Ashoka and Ford Foundation recognition
In February 2024, Kebun Kali Code was selected as 1 of 33 national community facilitators for the Gaharu Keluarga untuk Bumi programme, supported by Ashoka, Ford Foundation, and Indonesia's Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri RI). The selection confirmed what the community already knew: seven years of consistent practice builds something that institutions recognise.
Mental health as community strength
In November 2025, the community ran a psychoeducation programme — 'Communicate to Feel Connected' — in collaboration with UIN Sunan Kalijaga and Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. Mental wellness is not separate from community resilience. A neighbourhood that talks to each other is a neighbourhood that can face anything together.
A network that spans the world
Over seven years, Kebun Kali Code has built partnerships with more than 12 national and international universities and collaborated with communities from 11 countries: the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Canada, Italy, Suriname, France, and Singapore. Resilience here is not local pride — it is global solidarity, practised at neighbourhood scale.
“We survived a pandemic with vegetables and hand sanitiser we made ourselves. That is what resilience looks like.”
Timeline
2019 — Community founded, first social care program
2020 — 500 organic hand sanitiser bottles produced during Covid-19
Sept 2021 — Metro TV national coverage
Feb 2024 — Selected 1 of 33 by Ashoka & Ford Foundation
Nov 2025 — Mental health psychoeducation with UIN & UMS
2022–2026 — 12+ universities, 11 countries, still growing
By the numbers
- 7+
- years of unbroken community activity
- 11
- countries of collaboration
- 1 of 33
- selected by Ashoka & Ford Foundation (2024)