UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga through its Student Executive Board (BEM) Ministry of Community Service Universitas Airlangga conducted International community service activities with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Malaysia. It was held for five days, starting from Wednesday, January 22, 2020 to Sunday, January 26, 2020.
On the first day, the activity began with the opening and leadership seminar by Pulung Siswantara S.KM., M.Kes., as a lecturer at Faculty of Public Health (FKM) UNAIR in Room 301 Kahuripan. Then, a comparative study was carried out at Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) UNAIR. It was held there because the Malaysian students are from Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
In the opening, Prof. Dr. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, M.Si. as Vice Rector I Universitas Airlangga said that Indonesia has many factories that already use machines in their production, for example, coffee packaging. The machine has become a benchmark in life, so hopefully, we can learn together and UNAIR can also visit UiTM.
“In the future, we will rely on machines, because now everything is done with machines. Hopefully, this activity will be useful and we from UNAIR can also visit UiTM, ” she said.
It was followed with an introduction to Indonesian culture during the Gala Dinner night at Surabaya City Government Hall, the community service participants were presented with some cultural performances, such as Remo dance. Then on the next day, participants were invited to visit and conduct community activities in one of the villages guided by BEM UNAIR Community, in Jolosutro village, Blitar.
Some activities carried out were village consultation, teaching in elementary schools, making processed banana chips, making hydroponics, planting family medicinal plants (TOGA) together with local residents, and visiting destinations that were revitalized by the BEM UNAIR beach community service in Jolosutro. Dr. M. Hadi Subhan, SH., MH., CN., as the Director of Student Affairs Universitas Airlangga also attended and supervised the activities at Jolosutro.
On the last day before returning home, the participants were invited to visit one of the cultural villages in Surabaya, in Kampung Lawas Maspati. The residents welcomed them in clothes from recycled materials and gave them sarong and udeng on guests.
Nabilla Rizqi, one of the committee members explained the participants did not only see the cultural house, but they also learned Javanese Carakan, traditional games, and made Indonesian traditional drink called dawet. Nabila admitted that Indonesian culture was really interesting, great enthusiasm was shown from UiTM Malaysia participants.
“When they were serving in Jolosutro they were very happy because they experienced service in other countries. Then, they were also very enthusiastic, especially when learning Javanese language and making dawet, ” she said. (*)
Author: Ulfah Mu’amarotul Hikmah
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
