By Trustha Rembaka.          

The opportunity to live in a different society, culture, and environment is a valuable experience that will enrich students and the local community with insight, knowledge, and experiences. In 2022 Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta selected three students for the Local Exposure program to Lampung, namely Nia Oy (Agribusiness, Tribhuwana Tunggadewi University, Malang), and Andraharis (Accounting, Technology University of Yogyakarta), both from East Sumba and Yohanes Tola, from Manggarai (Energy System Engineering, Institute of Technology, Yogyakarta). They went to Lampung with Trustha Rembaka, the coordinator of Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta who accompanied them from April 2-16, 2022.

They shared their knowledge and skills with youth at Pondok Diakonia GKSBS Batanghari, East Lampung, including training in hair-cutting and its business prospects, it is such an added value for young people to have alternative jobs in the future. Nine children attended manual haircutting training using scissors and electric clippers, however it must be admitted that each of them improved differently. Another activity is public speaking having purpose to improve speaking skills by observing the types of events and the characteristics,  to design the run-down of an event and practicing appropriate gestures, how to speak easy-to-understand words, to have clear articulation, and to eliminate verbal graffiti. Next, journalistic training is an alternative to hone their ability to report on activities that have been carried out or convey their ideas or self-expression, then the writing will be published on a blog.

Two other trainings that complemented the skills of young people at Pondok Diakonia GKSBS Batanghari are processing chocolate bars and editing video. Chocolate processing using various colors shape into different model such as hearts, leaves, and cartoon figures into miniature masks. They also calculated the cost and determined a suitable selling price. Then video editing training became a tool to combine public speaking and narrative writing. Furthermore, they performed their progress by becoming event hosts and moderators at Stube HEMAT Lampung training on Health and Society, and creating video content related to youth and health for YouTube.

Not only the youth from Lampung did learn new things, but the students from Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta also met a special encounter in Way Kambas National Park to observe elephants directly, and in Mesuji they experienced the struggle to tap rubber, which they haven’t found in their daily life before.

Activities in Lampung have proven to be beneficial, as revealed by Griya, a teenager from Kotabumi, Central Lampung. “In the Stube activity last April, I discovered many things that I had never learned before, on public speaking training, I learned about self-confidence, facial expressions, body gestures, composing words, and I feel better. The presence of Stube is very important and helps the youth here to develop themselves. I hope the activities may last longer, so we can increase our skills and knowledge."

These series of activities became a learning space for all parts, either students who joined the Exposure Program to Lampung, or the youth of Pondok Diakonia GKSBS Batanghari, and the Multiplicator of Stube HEMAT in Lampung as well. Hopefully, the knowledge and skills learned will be beneficial as provisions for their lives, others’ and society. ***