UNAIR NEWS – Who would have thought, the garbage could change the lives of street children in the area of ‹‹Krembangan, Surabaya.Concerned about the amount of inorganic waste in the area, three 51¶¯Âþ students, Suprihatien, Wachidatul Qomariah, and Itsnaini Romadlona initiated anecopreneurprogramthrough RUMPIK community (Rumah Inspirasi Krembangan).
As an ecopreneur learning platform,according to Wachidatul Qomariah the team leader, RUMPIK supports the street children to develop entrepreneurial potential trough creations and innovations from “transforming” inorganic waste intohome-decorationand beautiful accessories that are worth selling.
“We provide intensive coaching so that these street children gain the knowledge and skills to process unused inorganic waste into beautiful products with high economic value,” added Wachidatul.
Their innovation was inspired by the abundant inorganic waste, especially burlap sacks and plastic waste.The team of Student Creativity Program of Community Service (PKMM) taught the street children to process the garbage into potentially feasible products to sell and in great demand, such as wall decoration, wallet, bag, etc.These street children’s products are then marketedoffline(traditional) andonline.
PKMM’s proposal entitled “Developing Potentials of Street Children ThroughEcopreneur Training“ was finally granted funding from Kemenristekdikti in PKM 2018 program.
Not only for waste recycling training, PKMM team which each have abackgroundas ayoungentrepreneur, do not hesitate to share their knowledge by providingonlinemarketing trainingthroughDigital Marketing Workshopto street children.The workshopwas held on May 25, 2018, in theE-LearningPIPS room.
“The onlinemarketingtraining is very interesting.They are invited to practice directly to sell their own products through the internet.I hope this kind of training can be applied to other youth, “said Warsono (45), the participants™ elder inthe Digital Marketing Workshop.
This training was organized to prepare street children to be able to compete in this millenial era.With recycling and marketing skills, the program is expected to create reliable young entrepreneurs and join the Young Entrepreneurs community of Krembangan.
As the name implies, this community consists of young people of Krembangan, especially street children who havepassionin the field of entrepreneurship.The purpose of the establishment of this community is as a forum to share knowledge and experience in the field of marketing to give birth productive and independent young entrepreneurs.In the long run, it is expected from this community to improve the economy and reduce the unemployment rate in Indonesia.(*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
