By Marihot Sihombing, S.H., S.Th.

This article is a product of a long struggle to share experiences with friends at Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta since living in Tarakan, North Kalimantan. I am Marihot GT Sihombing, from North Sumatra, but now I live in Tarakan with Sofiya Atalia, my wife. Both of us  studied in Yogyakarta, having graduated from the study, we worked and got married and moved to Tarakan.

Apart from working in legal field, I am also involved in social activities in church and community, one of them is mobilizing young people in Tarakan through the Kabar Baik community. The starting point of the community started from the potencies that exist in North Kalimantan, and it became a gathering group for young people for self-development, developing awareness to optimize potencies, both natural resources and human resources, especially those in North Kalimantan. North Kalimantan (Kaltara) is a strategic area because it is located on the Indonesia-Malaysia border. Kaltara has natural potency but is not be known yet by many people and is important to be explored and introduced to the public.

The motivation to share experience came out in the dialogue between Sofie and me because we learned with the same experiences we get from training activities organized by Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta. In Tarakan, we and young people from various regencies in North Kalimantan discussed many topics and visited some locations, such as the Mangrove and Proboscis Monkey Conservation Area (November 2, 2021). The community visited the area to get to know mangroves and gain insight into the importance of conserving mangrove forests and their habitats. Mangroves themselves are part of international issues related to global warming. Accompanied by environmental activist, Teguh Karya, the visit reminded us all that the existence of a well-maintained mangrove area can produce oxygen and become a habitat for other animals such as mangrove crabs with economic value and various types of fauna. Even President Joko Widodo also visited North Kalimantan to plant mangroves in Tanah Tidung regency.

In addition to activities in Tarakan, several students and I in Tarakan participated in an online discussion of Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta about Water Security on November 5, 2021. It must be admitted that the communication network in Tarakan was not so smooth however, some students tried to participate in discussions and share experiences of cases related to clean water in Tarakan and North Kalimantan in general. Some of the topics were the cloudy fresh water and how to clean it, as well as the Malinau area which is getting flooded frequently.

Through these activities, there is a hope that the awareness of young people in Tarakan will grow so their knowledge will increase, including their competence to care and preserve the environment around them.***

By Bernard Weniliwang.          

Talking about the village, the assumption is that village is far from development, life is still natural, culture is still strong and social intimacy is close. Some people think that village is a comfortable and pleasant place to live, but others think that life in the village is difficult due to limited job opportunities, business opportunities, and regional access, so that it is reasonable for people to leave the village and live in a city. Referring to Law number 6/2014, a village is a legal community unit that has territorial boundaries that are authorized to regulate and manage government affairs, the interests of the local community based on community initiatives, origin rights, and or traditional rights that are recognized and respected in the government system of Republic of Indonesia.

A similar thing happened in the Delaki village, a small village on Pantar Island, Central Pantar  district, Alor regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province which can be reached only by motorboat from Kalabahi or Alor Kecil across the Sawu Sea and the Ombai strait. It must be admitted that the condition of the damaged road becomes a challenge in itself when traveling overland using a motorcycle or other vehicle. Apart from being located on a small island, this village is also often considered an undeveloped, poor, and abandoned village, even though it has potencies that can be developed but have not been optimized due to limited human resources.

Responding to the situation, I and the head of the youth organization, Deriko Wabang, S.Pd., took the initiative by mobilizing young people in the village, mapping the village's potencies, and having  coordination with the Delaki village government. Then, we discussed the youth work program in 2021, including the production of candlenut oil, with Petrus Maure, the Multiplicator of Stube HEMAT in Alor, how to cultivate vegetable fields, initiating an English study group and reading group for children, and having a photo spot on Delaki beach. For the vegetable garden, we started by clearing the field near a well. At the same time, we prepared the mustard seeding and plant beds. A few days later the seedlings were moved to the beds, and we distributed the tasks of watering and caring for the plants. About 40 days after planting, we harvested good quality vegetables and market them directly or through social media. The candlenut oil production itself has entered the second batch by processing 50 kg of candlenut and producing 73 bottles. We are currently building a reading group and photo spot on the beach. Going forward, we are preparing to plant 1.000 trees for reforestation in November.

The success of the youth of Delaki village received appreciation from the local village official, James Boling, “I’m as the village government of Delaki feel proud to have young people who are passionate about building their village. Even with a limited budget from the village government, the young people made many changes in the village. We guarantee that we support, and next year there will be a budget”. Aksa Dati, a member of the youth group, admitted, “This activity brought something new because it has never been there before. This is the first time we have planted vegetables and have succeeded, producing candlenut oil, building reading groups and photo spots on the beach.”

Our struggle to start all this is not without challenges, most of them support but not a few who sneer and underestimate. But we still move with good intentions and focus on the goal, making changes is not an easy thing, but good intentions and real actions will pay off. This is the challenge for young people, to be productive and to have a hope for a better change.***

By Bernard Liwang, S.PAK

Alor regency is one of the regencies in East Nusa Tenggara Province. Based on the geography, the Alor regency is an archipelago consisting of three large islands (Alor, Pantar, Pura) and six small islands (Buaya, Kangge, Kura, Nuha, Tereweng, and Ternate islands). Alor Regency has an area of ​​2.928,88 km2, consisting of 17 districts, including Central Pantar district. It has ten villages and Delaki village, my home village, is one of the villages there. Delaki village can be reached by motorboat from the port of Kalabahi or Small Alor  to the west across the Sawu Sea, routing the southern side of Pantar island through Tamalabang and Tamakh and travel overland to Alimake.

The profile of Delaki village itself is on the island of Pantar and the western slope of Mount Sirung. The people of Delaki village work as farmers, fishermen, civil servants, teachers, and several other professions. Ten years ago, people used thatched roofs and woven bamboo walls for their houses, but now they have improved to tin roofs and bricked walls with the government aids. Besides the people’s houses, there are other improvements, such as lighting devices that are widely used now from the donated solar cell devices and the state electricity network, walking paths and internet access that is already available even though covers just several areas.

However, behind this exciting change, there are challenges in this village that have not changed since the past until now, namely the mindset, way of life of farming, gardening, fishing, etc. Some of the people in Delaki village have not been able to accept new changes to be agents of change. They still hold the old patterns from their ancestors which are considered the best and most trusted until now. For example, the way of farming, the residents cultivate the farm traditionally by 'slashing and burning'. In the dry season, they cut down a patch of forest or their lands ​​about one hectare to be used as agricultural fields. After being burned, they cultivated the land and grew several types of plants such as rice, corn, cassava, and other types of plants, both long-lived and seasonal. The land is then processed traditionally and manually without any modern tools and supporting tools for planting maintenance until the harvesting period. Thus an area of ​​one hectare only produced rice not more than ten sacks with a quintal per sack, as well as corn and other crops.

Another situation is that the people's crops are consumed to fulfill their food needs for one season and are not for sale because the crops are not enough for them. Besides old mindset of the residents, their inability to make a breakthrough how to process their crops, make villagers are left behind from others. So, it came to a satire as 'a village in a cave', which means a village that never changes. This village has wealth potencies that can be developed, such as cultivating rice fields with an integrated processing system, making various food from fields products, such as chips from corn, cassava, making juice drinks from cucumber, papaya, and other products.

If you pay close attention, the slow development of a village can be affected by the limited young people who have initiative as breakthroughs to bring new insights, knowledge to develop the village and change the mindset, improving the way of life of the people. Alor with unique of each island, its traditional cultures, hand-woven crafts, and accessories, a variety of plantation products to unique views of the hills and the beauty of the underwater panorama of Alor, requires a driving force for development. Do not let the people only be the spectators of the development

The current demand is that the younger generation, especially those in Alor, who are well-educated in the modern era should bring changes, have a visioner mindset, be creative and innovative to become a person who gives benefits.***

By Bernardus Z. Weniliwang, S.PAK

Living on the island of Pantar, a small island of East Nusa Tenggara province has its challenges, due to limited administrative services, transportation, communication coverage, educational facilities, health, and economy. I experienced this situation as a young person who came from Alimake, Delaki village, Central Pantar district, Alor regency. I, Bernadus Zakarias Weniliwang, familiarly called Bernad, was born in Alimake and spent my childhood to teenager in my hometown. In 2010, having graduated from junior high school, I decided to continue my study in Sumba island, precisely in East Sumba.

It was a difficult decision for a 15-year-old teenager because I had to leave my parents and hometown to fight for learning opportunities and to get a better school in a better environment. This is not without reason, because in my hometown at that time there were limited educational facilities and limited teaching staff, including the limitations in other fields. If the quality of education services is minimum, it impacts the quality of graduates who are less competitive both primary and junior high school, as I had experienced during junior high school. I never got high ranks in class, and even I did not pass the National Examination and had to take the remedy.

I found a different atmosphere when I started my study in Sumba and I felt that I was really in a supportive environment to thrive. It could be seen that  I became class-winner several times at high schools and the overall winner and even became the head of the Student Council of  State Senior High School 1 of Pandawai, East Sumba in 2012/2013. At the college, I majored in Christian Education (PAK) at  Theological Institute of Sumba Christian Church. Here I experienced better changes  when I was actively involved in internal campus organizations and extra campus organizations, such as Student Executive Organization,  Environmental Student Community, Indonesia Student National Movement (GMNI), and Stube-HEMAT Sumba, including learning English and music independently.

After graduation, various questions came up in my mind, started with what will I do next, where I will apply my knowledge, where I stay in Sumba or return to Alor or other places, how the condition of the people in my hometown is. These questions continued to arise because these issues are often discussed in Stube training I joined before, from Social Analysis, Local Potency Entrepreneurship, and Agriculture. With deep consideration, I decided to return to my hometown. There is a desire in my heart to do something useful in my hometown so that the community will develop more by paying attention to farming methods and processing local products. Apart from that, there is my passion to provide assistance and teaching English for youth and children in Alimake and to design activities that support tourism, especially at Pantar island.

When I arrived in my hometown, I faced challenges in the world of work and society, where many scholars were unemployed because they did not have a place to work and job opportunities were not available all the time. For the honorary workers, the amount of regular honorarium incentives is 200-400 thousand rupiah per quarter and regional contract workers are 400-500 thousand rupiah per month. This does not guarantee welfare, so finding out other sources of income is urgently needed. Like or not, I have to survive by using creativity and other skills I got in college, such as making music videos, entrepreneurship in making furniture, and also to be a motorbike taxi driver.

For me, one's success in studies must be balanced with a willingness to benefit others. In the context of the Alor community, success is taking part in improving people's lives through the experiences I have. ***

I am Kristiani Pedi, usually called Ina, from a village in East Sumba regency, East Nusa Tenggara province. Like other young people after having graduated from high school, I wanted to continue my study to a higher level to have a proper job and a good career. Formerly, I wanted to study theology to be a pastor serving church congregations. However, I faced hard challenges, such as the paradigm that women do not need to get a high education, the offer to work, and so on. The biggest obstacle to continue my studies was the economic limitation that forced me to put off my hope to continue my study but my enthusiasm still flaming out.

Well, on one hand, the situation made me down, but on the other hand, it put me have spare time. I am a person who cannot stay still and I wanted to do many activities, so I decided to participate in any activity as long as it is useful. One time, I took part in a training held by Stube HEMAT Sumba, and through it, I understood that the institution concerns for students and young people by equipping many things about life, the importance of the learning process, knowledge and science, how the implementations and many more. I felt so grateful when Stube HEMAT Sumba through an Exposure program to Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta in 2019 provided an opportunity for me and two students from Sumba to learn at Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta for one month. During the program in Yogyakarta, Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta accompanied us to learn more about self-development, agriculture, creativity and entrepreneurship, photography, cooking, and several other practical skills. When I arrived back in Sumba, I received continuous attention and support from the Stube HEMAT Sumba and Yogyakarta teams to share and develop the knowledge I had while in Yogyakarta. One of them is developing agricultural land for young people and photography.

In 2020, there was an admission for a Hospitality School in Southwest Sumba and I decided to take part in the selection. I had to compete with hundreds of candidates from four regencies in Sumba for one chance. I realized that the competition was tough because this school has an international level but I did not give up. I dared to dream and I have to prepare myself by learning and loving every process. One of them was improving my English skills, yes, because English is an international language. The ability to speak English will help someone to communicate in the international level. I learned English independently without taking courses. Eventually, I became one of the fifty candidates for the department I was interested in, the front office department. Now, I am very grateful to be part of this school as a dream school for some Sumba youth. Here I learn to be a disciplined and responsible person.

I think back when my study was delayed, it turns out that God opened ‘another way’ to learn through Stube-HEMAT, which made me a tough, resilient, and creative person. At the age of twentieth, I received God's blessing to continue studying at the Sumba Hospitality Foundation in Southwest Sumba. Stube HEMAT inspires me and opens opportunities to learn many things. One thing that I always hold on to is that Stube never let the students walking on their own, I am very lucky to be part of Stube HEMAT that has been supporting me and even being a family.

Many dreams that I have for the future, such as taking a half-part of my mother's burden in paying the school fees of my younger siblings, pioneering a workshop of traditional tied woven cloth to preserve the cultural heritage of East Sumba, opening job opportunities for the young people, developing Ana Tana community (youth agriculture) to reach young people and become a platform for talent development. (TRU).