This idea is a collaboration between Arkom Jatim’s girl's squad team with the woman’s cadre group of kampung Dupak Magersari in 2020. In the beginning, Arkom Jatim identified all groups in the community: men, women, elderly, teenagers, and kids. In the process, we find potencies of woman’s cadre group that consist of 10 women that formed from each RT for some activities in the community mostly for community health management. Arkom Jatim saw the spirit of change in this women’s group and started to initiate join activities.

During the increasingly soaring Covid-19 pandemic conditions, the Surabaya Smart City program is increasingly being intensified by the Surabaya city government. Efforts to create a clean and healthy environment are one of the goals of this program.
Arkom Jatim and the women's group start this project by mapping the actual kampung’s condition, finding potencies and space to be improved. After that, we planned strategic locations for urban greenery and wrote a list of the types of plants needed. In addition, we also agreed on a communal composting location to support the urban greenery in the kampung. This movement is a good start for a sustainable environment in the kampung.
Next meeting, we detailing our urban greenery planning. This idea is not only greening but also reducing waste in kampung Dupak Magersari. In the community meeting, we agreed that the solution to reduce dry waste is to sort waste and initiate a waste bank. Meanwhile, the solution for kitchen waste is to make communal compost that will be used as the fertilizer for their greenery. In addition to efforts to reduce waste, Arkom Jatim and the women's group want to initiate the planting of productive plants. Some community meetings happened to learn together about communal composting and productive plants. The women’s group decide the schedule of their urban greenery project, included composting, nursery, planting, and harvest compost.

The rising of housing prices and the lack of land availability in Surabaya city has made the Dupak Magersari community choose to live along railway tracks. The accessibility to economic resources is one of their reasons to build homes there even though they threatened eviction. That condition has affected the improvement of their living environment. They have difficulty accessing the physical improvement program of the Surabaya city government. On the other hand, the community is a low-income group that difficult to have significant improvement by themselves.
This problem makes the Dupak Magersari kampung’s environment slum and unhealthy. According to the local government give information that in Musrenbang year 2020 (yearly village planning meeting) declare the settlement along railway track can only access funds for non-physical programs such as basic skills training. Meanwhile, the community can access the physical improvement fund from another source through active participation in the kampung improvement competition held by the Surabaya city government, such as Surabaya Smart City Competition.
The Surabaya Smart City competition is an important moment for the Dupak Magersari community, especially the women's group who want their kampung to become greener and cleaner. In each competition, there are some funds given to contestants as support of their kampung improvement. The juries will see community value in initiative, creativity, and togetherness. This opportunity made the women's group and Arkom Jatim initiate urban greenery in kampung Dupak Magersari, solving their hot conditions along the railway track that low greenery.

The women’s group has big consistency and commitment in carrying out composting and seedling management, learning together from zero to enjoying the results together. This community involvement is important in the process and is a new breakthrough for the community. Because most programs only provide minimal assistance and community involvement from the start, especially involvement in data collection and planning. The advantage of this participatory process is that it simplifies the implementation process and its sustainability. The challenge of limited land for communal composting and reforestation is being handled well with solutions that are explored and worked out by the community together. Creative ideas have sprung up to make maximum use of land like the principles of urban farming.

This project will be continued to execute another point in community planning. Woman’s group will start a community waste bank in small groups, in which waste is exchanged for groceries. They also will initiate designing a communal greenery space and encourage another community group to participate.