Bridge for Cikuya Village

By Yasmin Aruni

Editor Yasmin Aruni

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - As a form of ITB dedication for the community, KKN Tematik (Thematic Community Service Program) is routinely held every year. In 2015, KKN Tematik was held on Saturday-Tuesday (06-30/06/15) in Cikuya Village, Culamega County, Tasikmalaya Regency, West Java. Unlike previous years, this year's KKN Tematik brings quite a hard mission, one of them is building the village bridge.

Nineteen persons that are involved as the KKN committee has started working since January 2015. After several surveys to different areas, Cikuya Village was chosen for several reasons. "This village has no electricity, IPM (Human Development index) is low, and the infrastructures are not sufficient," said Syahrial Taufik (Mining Engineerin 2012) as the Head of KKN Committee. To reach the village, it takes 7 hours from Bandung. A 1,5-3 hours walk is also needed in order to reach some of the villages. A total of 124 KKN participants have been equipped with trainings before they plunge into society. The trainings include social mapping, leadership, FGD (Focus Group Discussion), medical, and education. The objective is to increas teamwork and communication ability with the people.

Four Targets of KKN Tematik: Infrastructure, Education, Energy, and Water

In this year's KKN Tematik, the committee targeted a development in infrastructure, education, energy, and water. The mission done in infrastructural field is building the village bridge. To fulfill the mission, KKN Tematik ITB collaborate with P2D (Rural Empowerment Center) and Secapa AD (Army Officer Candidate School). Lead by Ir. Endra Susila, MT, Ph.D, P2D is an ITB organization consisting of various disciplines with the aim to develop villages.

The collaboration with Secapa AD was unplanned. In the beginning, Secapa AD was only asked to help in giving leadership training for KKN participants. It turned out that Secapa AD feels a unison in vision with KKN Tematik ITB and was interested to join. Secapa AD helped in the building of village bridge, particularly in tools procutement, transportation, and manpower.

In energy field, the most important thing considered by committee is electricity supply in Cikuya Village. And that is why committee requested the government of electrical instalation. This request was granted, so that before KKN take place, electricity was already installed in the village. As for the water, the committee targeted a clean water supply that was realized in well construction and building MCK (Bathe, Wash, Toilet) for the people.

Education was the main priority. If other fields were only focused in one village, educational development is mandatory in every village. "From the last year's committee evaluation, education has to exist in every village," said Syahrial. Now, the highest level of education in Cikuya Village is junior high school. There's no senior high school yet. The committee planned on developing 1-3 children with the most potential. They will try to seek scholarships in order for the children to pursue higher education.