UNY supports students to participate in various empowerment programs that impact society. One of these supports is provided for UNY students who participate in the "Young Warrior Program" managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The program attracted 5,140 students from various universities who were deployed to the community to learn about social problems up close and work to solve poverty problems in 514 districts/cities across Indonesia.
Participants in this program can choose one of four program options, namely in the fields of social assistance, empowerment, environment, and environmental facilities. In their assigned locations, the students will work on projects to address poverty and social problems supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs. UNY students getting the opportunity to be involved in this activity include Daffa Fakhri Maulana (Civic and Legal Education) and Rizqi Juniarti (Accounting Education) with placement in Lembata Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province.
"We are here to help accelerate poverty reduction by verifying and validating Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS). The DTKS verification and validation is carried out using the Social Affair Geographic Information System (SAGIS) application, where each recipient of social assistance that is verified and validated can confirm the location and condition of their home and the utilization of social assistance that has been received. In addition, we also try to solve social problems through team-based projects," said Daffa.
"Team-based projects are social projects that are carried out through mapping social problems and identifying solutions, which are then compiled in the form of proposals," said Rizqi.
During their assignment, Daffa, Rizqi and seven other team members recorded, verified and validated around 1,000 data on social assistance recipients. This good teamwork even made Lembata Regency one of the districts that achieved a high ranking in the verification and validation of DTKS in East Nusa Tenggara Province.
From the problem mapping through observation, Daffa and Rizqi and seven other students stationed in Lembata Regency found that the basic problem is the abundant natural potential that the community has not optimally utilized. Three sub-districts have problems and potential that are suitable for empowerment, namely Ile Ape Sub-district with the potential of titi corn, Wulandoni Sub-district with the potential of candlenut and Nagawutung Sub-district with the potential of seaweed. The Pejuang Muda student group raised this problem by proposing a proposal entitled 'Empowerment of PKH Beneficiary Families (KPM) with Community-Based Education and Digital Marketing Methods to Increase the Economic Value of the Lembata Regency Community' to the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs as the institution that houses Pejuang Muda.
Daffa and Rizqi organized a series of activities for residents. One is financial literacy activities in Pada Village, Lebatukan District, for elementary and junior high school students. In this financial literacy activity, they learned to recognize money, understand the meaning of saving, and then provide an understanding related to their dreams and what they should prepare for early on. "Then we also invited the children to make piggy banks from beverage bottles and cardboard boxes for them to start saving," said Rizqi. They also held socialization activities for residents related to the world of college and sources of information about scholarships. "Because our target is PKH participants, we also discuss KIP, so this is one of the main steps to motivate residents to send their children to college," said Daffa. This socialization was held because many people have no intention of sending their children to college. Then, after the activity, the community became aware and intended to send their children to college. Even Daffa and Rizqi are still helping them until now by providing online information through their gadgets. This program is one of UNY's efforts in the sustainable development agenda in quality education, partnerships and poverty alleviation.
