COMPLETE REPORT NEC MAKE-A-DIFFERENCE DRIVE (NMDD) 2007
21 December 2007, by: NEC-Indonesia

Background

 

Bantargebang Final Waste Disposal site has operated in 1989. In planning that was arranged on 1987/1988, this site was engineered as sanitary landfill method. But the actual, it just a semi opening dumping method.  It is caused many problems in around the site.  For instance, it caused ground water pollution from leachate (among 20 well only 1 in good condition), heavy metallic pollution. On rainy season like this moment, it raised bad smelt and many fly and rats nest there.  On dry season, it caused waste burning that smog impact to air pollution and bad visibility to the residential in Bekasi.

 

Community around the Final Waste Disposal site in Bantargebang, Bekasi lives under standard of living situation and dirty environment.  Children under seventeen are the major citizen in this area. Their parent majority work as Waste Picker or Pemulung. Nature, education and health problems such as lack of public library or education facilities, environment and health problems are very serious matters to be made up.

 

Compulsory education in Indonesia begins at seven years. Children between seven and twelve years old are required to enroll in school. They are expected to be able to read, write, and gain the knowledge needed for survival and for self-development. However, the quality of education is not the same all over the locations, due to unfavorable circumstances in some areas, mainly poverty and isolation. Consequently, some children have finished the compulsory education but are still unable to read, and some adults have lost their literacy due to a lack of access to reading materials. In Indonesia, library service for people outside the formal educational system has been insufficient. Consequently, the problems of illiteracy and inefficient literacy can be seen in many areas. Most of children living at the Final Waste Disposal site cannot enjoy formal education. They work from the early of morning until a half of day as Pemulung, then after lunch they study in the informal school conducting by volunteers.

 

Other matter is the fact that the Final Waste Disposal site in Bantargebang, Bekasi contributes about 6,000 tones of commercial waste per day, a part of them (around 1,500 tones) coming from vegetables and fruit garbage. But the Waste Picker usually only put plastic wastes. They still do not know vegetables and fruits waste can be recycled as fertilizer and they can produce it to be sold outside. We trained the community and children at this site in making fertilizer from vegetables and fruit garbage.

 

Indonesia is especially vulnerable to the impact of climate change as global warming threatens to raise sea levels and flood coastal farming areas, threatening food security. Global warming could increase temperatures, shorten the rainy season and intensify rainfall, leading to a significant fall in rice yields. Developing countries like Indonesia can use reforestation to reduce carbon emissions. Waste also produces carbon emission that becomes a serious aspect for the danger of global warming. Plantation at waste disposal area shall be conducted by the community leaving in this area.

 

On the other side, Indonesia has varieties of traditional herbal medicine derives from leaves, fruits, roots, seeds, flower or tree barks. As part of the national family welfare program, each neighborhood has been encouraged to have a medicinal plants garden to treats their family members.  The garden is also aimed at preserving the medicinal plants.  With a view to maintaining this diversity and ensuring the long-term future of the community’s health care, we need to devise a program for the sustainable use of medicinal plants.  We shared information to the community about traditional medicinal and plant some varieties of herbal medicine trees.

 

Community is one of company’s stakeholders, and we have to show our responsibility to develop the community.  To run CSR program trough NEC Make a Different Drive (NMDD) 2007 event, company cooperates with a foundation which really concern in how to have a better community.

 

 

Partnership

 

1001buku Community (www.1001buku.org) is a network of volunteers and owners of children libraries who commits to provide access to quality readings for less fortunate children. 1001buku Community is a non-profit, recreational reading library located at Tebet, South Jakarta. It is founded in 10 January 2003 by volunteers who concern in children education.  They have 943 volunteers in some locations around Indonesia. They have also 62 Book Drops Box and support 101 community libraries.

 

We inspire to cooperate with them since they give best efforts in local child-focused to improve the quality of life for children, families, and communities by providing early childhood care and development, reading resources, and services to the communities.

 

This organization works in cooperation with the local communities in promoting literacy, good reading habits and early childhood development. The children-and-family library and the story-book project have become models for other organizations and communities in establishing a community children’s library and associated services in the country

 

 

Purpose

 

1.      Encouraging children and community living at the Final Waste Disposal site to have habit of reading and enjoy books in many simple and creative ways.

2.      Establishing a children-and-family library and organizing a story-book project to facilitate the work of childcare centers at the Final Waste Disposal site, a rural area with activities for the children.

3.      Developing the mother’s skill by providing sewing machine and recycling plastic waste.

4.      Sharing information and educate the community in Waste Management especially recycling the traditional market’s waste (vegetables and fruits waste) to make fertilizer.

5.      Sharing information and educate the community about the Indonesian traditional medicinal trees for family’s health care and its plantation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activities

 

1.      Education Program 

a.      Providing Drops Boxes: to collect used books, used clothes and learning tools (storybooks, learning books, magazines, and educational playing tools for pre-school children) from employees.

b.     Supporting our partner to deliver collected books to 30 locations around Indonesia.

c.      Library equipments: donating some equipment for the library such as bookcase, and put the books orderly by its category.

d.      Building a traditional house for classroom.

e.      Children activities: story-telling, games and “Angklung” performance (an Indonesian traditional music).

2.      Nature Program

a.      Delivering in-house training to the local community with the subject ‘how to make fertilizer from vegetables and fruits waste’.

b.     Medicine trees plantation.

 

 

Place and Time

 

Place   : Sekolah Alam “Tunas Mulia” located at The Final Waste Disposal site

            at Bantagebang, Bekasi

Time   : - Pre Activities (1 and 8 December 2007);

            - Operating Activities & Ceremony (13 December 2007)

   

 

Participants

 

Totally, there were 164 persons participated to this event as shown in the following details :

-         32 employees of PT NEC Indonesia (including members of management)

-           8 persons from 1001buku (the partner)

-         124 persons from the local community

 

 

Detail of Activities

 

Generally, our NMDD consists of 2 (two) steps: Pre-Activities and Operating Activities.

 

- Pre Activities (1 and 8 December 2007)

 

1.       Saturday, 1 December 2007

- Cleaning up the library room.

- Sorting and classifying the books collection and purchase new books collection.

- Delivering in-house training for the community concerning how to make fertilizer from vegetables and fruits waste.

- Starting to build a traditional house for new classroom size 30M2.

 

 

2.       Saturday, 8 December 2007

- Delivering books to 30 locations in Indonesia.

- Finishing the new building and its apparatuses.

- Planting the traditional medicine trees and share the virtue of these medicine trees.

- Delivering 5 (five) units sewing machines and 1 (one) machine hemming.

- Making coordination with the responsible person of the school, Sekolah Alam “Tunas Mulia” concerning the preparation of ceremony and children performance.

 

 

3.        Operational / Ceremony (13 December 2007)

The ceremony is starting with speeches from Mr. Hiroshi Sato (President Director of NEC Indonesia), Mr. Bambang Tri Puspito (GM of General Administration of NEC Indonesia) and Mr. Aryo (partner, 1001buku).  The next agenda is children performance that presented Angklung performance (one of the Indonesian traditional music).

 

Then, as symbolic, Mr. Sato delivered a plaque to 1001buku as the partner of this event, and also to the representative of the community and the children. We presented new books collection, nursery tools, sewing machines and machine hemming for the mothers and goody-bags for the children.   Mr. Sato officially opened and delivered the new building to the community.  Then, Mr. Sato planted a medicine tree as a symbol of friendship between NEC and the community and put a plaque in the garden.

 

We conducted some activities for the children such as story-telling and variety of games. Almost 100 children joined these activities.

 

 

Media Coverage

 

Our NMDD is published and broadcasted by some media/press :

1.       Television of the Republic of Indonesia (TVRI)

2.       JakTV

3.       Radio of the Republic of Indonesia (RRI)

4.       Jakarta Post

5.       Suara Pembaruan

6.        Berita Buana

7.       Pelita