Community

At Aloita, we realize we wouldn’t have the opportunity to bring you such an amazing tropical experience if it weren’t for the gracious nature of the local Indonesian people, and we do our best to give back to them every chance we get. This starts first and foremost by employing an almost entirely local Indonesian staff of roughly 25 men and women. Of these, approximately half are local Mentawai people from nearby islands of Sipora and Siberut, while the other half are mostly mainland “Minang” people. This provides for an interesting mix of Christian, Catholic, and Muslims beliefs, but we are an equal opportunity employer and believe in a meritocracy above all. Our current trekking tour manager is a good example of how you can advance: he lived most of his life in the jungles in Siberut, and within a year he was creating spreadsheets and crafting tours that still leave us amazed on a daily basis. These are kind, hard-working people, and they will make your stay at Aloita something special.

Aloita also has a long, ongoing relationship with the folks of Surf Aid in neighboring Tua Pajet. Surf Aid is a non-profit that has been instrumental in establishing deep and lasting changes in the health of the nearly 70,000 Mentawai people, and in particular they have made huge strides in creating a Malaria Free Mentawais. Recently, Aloita took part in the Billabong Sponsored Development Project in July of 2008 to bring awareness to Surf Aid’s efforts in the Mentawais, and the winner of this competition won a free trip to stay at our resort. We look forward to continuing to work with Surf Aid in the future, as well as other non-profits and philanthropic organizations, to improve the overall health and quality of living of the Mentawai people.

To improve the quality of life for the Mentawai people, we also have to be conscious of our impact on the environment. For the past 4 years, Aloita has been incorporating various waste management and disposal systems in attempt to tread lighter and leave a smaller ecological footprint on the environment. These include thorough recycling programs, a complex compost system, and a focus on “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Renew, and Recycling” waste. We’re also attempting to create less waste in the first place by creating our own market garden where we can grow organic veggies and fruit and train our staff in basic agricultural techniques.

Aloita holds a special place for many of the local Mentawai people. We are the flagship of resorts in many ways for the Mentawais, and have housed many government meetings, foreign investors, and VIPs. In short, when the local government wants to schmooze someone, they come to Aloita. The last local Mentawai surf competition was held at Tikus on the edge of our land, and we regularly hold volleyball matches on Sunday afternoons for the locals. We’ve even given free nights at the resort as prizes for local competitions. We are very proud that the locals would hold us in such high regard, and we will never take it lightly, and will always continue to try to strengthen our relationships with the local community.