Citizenship Workshop Bandungan 2019
The Citizenship Workshop in Bandungan was started with the participants sang the national anthem of Indonesia, “Indonesia Raya”. After that, Ibu Parche Manoto provided the welcoming speech along with the explanation of the trends of VDMS/VDMI grantees and alumni. Also, Ibu Ana Ghosyatul Umaroh, the secretary of the Kenteng Village, explained the local potential that might provide insight for the participants on how to develop their communities through some local initiatives. It is expected that participants could model what people in this village do to generate income for themselves as well as for the village by maximizing the local potentials.
Before the main agenda, each day, participants started their activity with a morning exercise, breakfast, and self-preparation from 06.00-08.00 AM. Then, they were gathered in the meeting room to do “Morning Discussion”. The topics of the students’ discussion are problems faced by Indonesia in recent years such as food security, electricity distribution, human trafficking, mental health, and moral crisis. The participants seemed to enjoy understanding the issues from the perspective of other participants who represent their regions. The discussion aimed to improve the participants’ awareness of the recent problems faced by Indonesia.
In the first session, participants were facilitated by Dr. Jenny Ratna Suminar to understand how to be active citizens who can create significant changes in their communities. At the end of her session, Dr. Jenny assigned the participants to try to earn money by helping the local citizens. The participants were so excited when they could bring back their earning. The participants then explain how they can get that amount of money, what is the meaning of that money for them, and what they had learned from this activity.
Aligned with the first facilitator, Ferdinand Hindiarto built the students’ understanding of how to be active citizens by proposing the new perspective of “Radicalism”. Most of the news coverage and sources of information define radicalism in a negative connotation. Ferdinand suggested the students be radical to create significant changes in this country. He also discussed several national figures that radically change Indonesia for the better. It is expected that the positive view on radicalism could provide new insight for students in finding extraordinary solutions for problems faced by this nation.
In the “Local Exposure” session, participants were divided into 4 groups: agriculture, agribusiness, ecopreneur, and husbandry. The agriculture group explored chili and lotus Farming. They learned how to plant, cultivate, and distribute farming products into markets. The agribusiness group visited a small business enterprise that uses tomato as its main product (Tomat Rasa Kurma/Torakur). The ecopreneur group visited the local eco-tourism (Home Land). They learn how to manage local potential, the beautiful landscape in the village, so that it can benefit people in the village. The husbandry group learned from the owner of a chicken farm on how to manage his farm and distribute the eggs and chickens to the market. Besides learning from the local people, the CW participants also contribute their understanding of the problems faced by the local people by suggesting solutions for improvement. The detailed problem analysis and solutions from the local exposure are listed in separated files.
With the spirit of sustainable social development, VDMI invited one of VDMI alumni, Annisa Taqwa, to share her knowledge and experience. Annisa works in a nonprofit organization, Plato Foundation, that focused on advocating the victim of drug abuse as well as people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS). The case of drug abused and HIV-AIDS are common in the life of emerging adults nowadays. The sharing session with Annisa aimed to make the participants understand how to deal with friends who are involved in drug abused or infected by HIV-AIDS. Also, the sharing session served as the prevention so that CW participants will not be trapped in the similar problems faced by their unfortunate counterparts.
On the last day of CW, the Optimus Training Center team led the outbound activities. There were four activities in the training that have different purposes. First, the Magic Ball aimed to train participants about empathy and responsibility. The participants were directed to release a ball from a glass with some obstacles. Second, the Balancing Box aimed to train participants about teamwork, communication, and empathy. The participants were asked to arrange blocks utilizing rope installations. Third, the One for All game aimed to train participants about togetherness and involvement. The participants were directed to cooperate in finishing a mission inside a box with a time limit. Finally, the Egg Drop game aimed to train participants on how to make a strategy and divide tasks to achieve a goal. The participants were asked to make a tower and bridge as a safe track for the prepared egg. At the end of the day, participants went to city sight. The next day, participants prepared to return to their original city and ready to be active citizens in their communities
