The concept of Gotong Royong (work hand in hand) system in Javanese Society perceives as an embedded value within the culture and tradition.  In reaching towards the same goal, togetherness and full participation of members of the community is essential and required.

This concept is applied and integrated to the reconstruction of houses in every community in Yogyakarta Disaster Response Project and Dahromo Village, Bantul Sub-District, Yogyakarta is one of the communities which had developed Gotong Royong.

When Dahromo community held a small ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Habitat house reconstruction and rehabilitation project on the village on 14 May 2007, Head of Sub-district, Village Leader, the home partner representatives showed acknowledgement of how effective Gotong Royong system in the community.

Salaman, one of the families in Dahromo testified, “It’s been an enjoyable experience to work with Habitat. All members of the community are very grateful for the house provision.” On Gotong Royong system in house building, Salaman also added “I think Habitat’s program is quite unique. Not all organizations have implemented Gotong Royong system to build the houses. It’s getting harder nowadays to keep this system going in communities, but Habitat is very dedicated and committed, and that is the reason why the community was motivated to work together in this program.”

Habitat believes the concept which has been weakened in the community can be preserved in this particular project.

The Situation in Dahromo after the earthquake	The community work hand in hand to build the house	The situation in the field