Economic Growth Indonesia Project #9812

Provide Skills for Indonesian Unemployed Youth

by Yayasan Usaha Mulia / Foundation for Noble Work

Provide Skills for Indonesian Unemployed Youth

Project Report | May 23, 2018
A visit from Reed Young - GlobalGiving

By Reed Young | GlobalGiving In-field traveler

With Yolanda and Samsul - YUM's project leaders

A few days ago I visited YUM's community center in Cipanas, Indonesia, a town a few hours outside of Jakarta. I spent the whole day (from 6AM to 6PM!) with YUM staff and community members and came away from the day energized and inspired. Prior to 2009 the YUM's community center used to be an orphanage; however, in 2009, YUM held a community stakeholder meeting and there they identified the need for a facility centered on family services. The focus on family, community, and youth development was present in all aspects of my day at the community center. YUM's work in the community is quite impressive and it is important in my reflections of my day with YUM to note that the work they do is challenging. At one point, my tour guides mentioned that reading rates are low in the community. It was a challenge to get students to attend the newly built library, so they needed to be creative. They held events and opportunities besides reading to draw the community in. Eventually, they were able to encourage students to use the library to read and change the culture around literacy in the community.

I also visited YUM's Vocational Training Center on my tour. The unemployment rate for youth in Cipanas is over 60%. YUM's early childhood programs will likely lower that in the future; however, while there is work being done to change unemployment for future youth, there needs to be programming done to assist the youth in the community today as well.

The VTC is YUM's way to address young adult poverty today. They offer computer training classes, English language classes, and sewing and fabric materials classes. These vocational programs offer youth skills that are applicable in the job market and community. Moreover, they are skills that give youth the opportunity to improve their community. I was encouraged by the people and tutors I met who work in the vocational training center. I strongly believe that community centered programs are the best way to address local problems (especially when government support is not around), and YUM's programs are a model for how a community can come together in a local and sustainable way to support the development of kids from the cradle to their careers.

With YUM's Angklung kids

With YUM's women sewing project

The students of YUM-VTC Cipanas

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Feb 28, 2018
The story of Amalia and Bibah.

By Yolanda Utami Nilasari | Program Development Coordinator

Amalia

Amalia is an 18-year-old high school student. Her father works part-time at the village office, while her mother is a housewife. She is the youngest child of four siblings. Her dream is to become a fashion designer who can create and sew her own clothing line.

She enrolled in a sewing classes with Ms. Ida as her tutor. She finds that Ms. Ida is a good teacher and very helpful during her course at the training centre. Next term, she plans to enroll in English class because she understands the importance of English and would like to be able communicate with foreigners. She wants to prepare herself to compete in the world of fashion. She also hopes that in the future she will be able to provide employment opportunities for her relatives and neighbors.

Another story is about Bibah, a 30-year-old mother of an 8-year-old son. Her husband works as a part-time laborer in construction. Bibah only finished elementary school level in her education. Her parents could not afford to pay her school fees. She promised herself that she would support her own child to complete a higher level of study that was not possible for her.

In October 2016, Bibah started to enroll in sewing classes at the YUM Vocational Training Centre in Cipanas. Her tutor was Ms. Ila. Bibah has improved her skills and confidence from the courses and started receiving sewing orders from her neighborhood. Her first order came from her next door neighbor to make a dress. At that time, Bibah was very nervous and afraid to make mistakes.

New orders for garments have come to Bibah. There are a minimum 5 orders from different customers every week. People love her work. The work has earned Bibah additional income for her family, which is important to offset the low-income periods that her husband encounters and to help her son continue to attend school.

Nowadays, Bibah has 1 sewing machine and 1 embroidery machine at her house. She hopes that in the future she will get more orders not only from individuals but also from schools, corporates and others. She hopes that with enough capital, she could run her own business and employ other people.

The transformational stories about Amalia’s dream and Bibah’s have been made possible with your support. If you wish to continue helping (or if you know someone who might be interested) a $10 donation covers the cost of 1 tutor for one course session, which would give Ms. Ida and Ms. Ila more opportunities to share their knowledge to more students at the Cipanas Vocational Training Centre.

Amalia in Sewing class room

Bibah with her small family

Bibah working room at her house

Bibah with her creation

Bibah with her creation 2

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Dec 29, 2017
Nothing is Impossible Thanks To Your Help!

By Yolanda Utami Nilasari | Program Development Coordinator

A sewing class student

2017 has been quite a difficult year for the Vocational Training Center in Cipanas. Starting last July, the government launched the Full Day School (FDS) program. Even though this policy is not mandatory, most of the high schools in Cipanas have applied this program since the beginning of school year. Normally the schools would dismiss students at 2pm, and the students would then come to YUM VTC afterwards for classes, but now with the FDS, students now remain at school until 4pm. This situation has affected the number of participants because it is impossible for them to attend the classes on weekdays. In order to solve this situation, luckily we have very dedicated tutors who are willing to teach on the weekend. Six dedicated tutors continued to teach more than 200 students in Computer, English and Sewing classes since August. Besides that, we also welcomed 123 participants in the Job Seeking Skills workshop.

Another notable activity in 2017 is that, since June, we opened a very simple Internet connection rental with four computers for the people in the area. We realized that not every house, school or community space has computers or a reliable Internet connection. Therefore, by opening this facility, we would like to accommodate the people’s needs, especially for the students and youths, as this could be used for school assignments, job seeking, sending job applications etc.

These small and simple happenings in 2017 would have been impossible without any support from you, our GlobalGiving generous donors. At this end of year, we would like to thank you for your continued support and dedication. Your help is still very much needed to continue our work and we hope that if you haven’t yet made a donation this end of year, please do consider donating to this project.

Computer class students

English class students

YUM-VTC dedicated tutors

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