Don't Want to Give up
Rub salt into the wound. More or less, that's how the people of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara felt after the earthquake three years ago. At the time when the community's economy was almost recovering, the Covid-19 pandemic had devastated the business sector in Lombok, including the Small and Medium Industries (SMI), which were deeply affected.
However, SMI business actors do not want to remain silent. Instead of accepting fate, old and new SMI actors often carry out various mitigations and readiness for entering a new normal era.
One of them is also applied by Hostiyaallah (25). The head of the Sembalun Bumbung Village Youth Organization, who was just inaugurated in 2020, immediately created a new SMI in his village to open up job opportunities for young people, named Al-Daq Mas. The SMI produces various handicrafts from bamboo trees, which are made by the youth of Sembalun Bumbung Village.
"This IKM was formed because of the awareness of the youth to increase Sembalun tourism, despite the Covid-19, the products we produce so far are still being ordered, although not many of us do not have jobs or businesses," said Hosyatilah.
Seeing the potential and willingness and creativity that can be developed from this young man, Wahana Visi Indonesia with the support of BNP Paribas through the BNP Paribas IDX30 Philanthropy Index Mutual Fund Social Fund tries to provide business assistance to several IKM in Sembalun District, East Lombok Regency.
“Previously, we did not have a regular schedule for capacity building other than what we followed from Wahana Visi Indonesia. There used to be BLK training from the village. However, the funds were allocated to the handling of Covid-19. This assistance adds to the insight of the youth here, starting from us being able to market our products with the media, making simple videos for promotion, even though they are still in the learning stage, training is provided both online and offline," said Hosyatilah.
Through this mentoring program, the results of their products which previously could only be explored around the Sembalun area, either restaurants or hotels, now Al-Daq Mas has been able to market the products outside the island of Lombok in quite large numbers. Currently, they are still planning to process by targeting local markets (restaurants and hotels) to provide night lamps and table number mats.
Not only assistance, Aldaq Mas and other SMEs receive supporting equipment to develop their businesses.
The manufacturing process still uses makeshift tools that are still difficult to sync with electricity and a pen. Fortunately, we are also helped by the tools provided so that they can help speed up the manufacture of our products," he concluded.
Written by: Siluh Puspita, Staff of Lombok Earthquake Emergency Response Wahana Visi Indonesia
