Responding to community needs through the Pejuang Muda Program

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Program Pejuang Muda or Young fighter Program is a social laboratory for students to apply their knowledge and knowledge to make a substantial social impact in society. In addition, this program is part of the Merdeka Campus Program under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, and the Ministry of Religion, which every Indonesian student can participate in. One of the UNY students who had the opportunity to participate was Aulia Nishful Laila from the Non-Formal Education study program, Faculty of Education, UNY, placed in Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan Province.

“At the time of the announcement, I got a placement in Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan. I was afraid and wanted to withdraw from this program because I had never left Java, but I had a strong determination to continue this program," said Aulia.

Aulia's first task was to verify and validate data on social assistance beneficiaries of the Family Hope Program (PKH) and Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT). Aulia visited the Beneficiary Families (KPM) one by one or commonly known as a home visit. The terrain is quite tricky because it passes through rocky or muddy roads. Because most of the area in Aluh-Aluh Subdistrict is water, moving from one village to another sometimes uses a water boat.

While verifying and validating data, Aulia also observed environmental conditions to identify problems in Banjar Regency. Two crucial issues need to be addressed immediately: the low vaccination rate in Banjar Regency and the difficulty of access to milling rice. Even though Banjar Regency is also famous as a rice barn for the South Kalimantan region, it turns out that there are still some areas that have difficulty accessing the rice milling process. Therefore, Aulia and her group proposed a program to overcome the limited access to milling rice in the form of 'Farming Business Development Through Procurement of Mobile Rice Milling Units (RMU) for Beneficiary Families (KPM) in Aluh-Aluh District, Banjar Regency'. Hopefully, the mobile rice milling unit will give better access to the community and improve the graduation rate of the Beneficiary Families (KPM).

Another task is related to implementing a team-based project in the form of vaccine socialization to Beneficiary Families (KPM). On the sidelines of busyness in verifying and validating data, Aulia and the team conducted socialization related to the vaccination program both at the village level and visited the homes of each KPM to invite the public to be more aware of the importance of vaccines. However, because some people in Banjar Regency are still afraid to be vaccinated, the method used also needs to be adjusted to the characteristics of the surrounding community.

“This program is beneficial. Besides being able to experience life outside Java, I can hear firsthand the needs of the local community and at the same time try to offer solutions," said Aulia 

Author
Dedy, Tj.Lak