IT training provided to alleviate poverty

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

In its efforts to alleviate poverty, the Surabaya municipality is providing multimedia training to the urban poor.

Surabaya Vice Mayor Arif Affandi said Surabaya would become a multimedia hub in the near future, thanks to the presence of a number of free Internet facilities in various districts of the city.

"We are setting them up now," Arif told The Jakarta Post.

Arif said public services in the city had considerably improved thanks to an integrated one-stop system. He said a businessman, for example, no longer needed worry about of the long license issuance.

"More and more businessmen are investing in Surabaya thanks to the privileges. It will automatically boost the employment rate," he said.

Arif said the general public had also been introduced to information and communication technology, citing as an example the 2.7 million residents in Surabaya who held their own e-mail address, which would later be included on their identity cards.

The municipality and the private sector currently are training low-income people to become more familiar with information technology.

Surabaya Manpower Office head Ahmad Syafi'i said his office received help from private education institutions to provide training.

"The more institutions provide education to residents, the better the city can cope with the unemployment problem.

Alleviating poverty requires attention from every party, especially the private sector," he said.

A resident in Wonorejo subdistrict in Rungkut district, Tutik Sulastri, 37, looked confused when operating the computer during a training session. She sat still while holding the mouse, waiting for the instructor.

"I'm used to hearing a lot of computer and Internet terms on television and in newspapers, and seeing computers in electronic shops, but I've never touched a computer before, much less operated one," she told the Post.

Tutik, a junior high school graduate, was a member of one of the 1,610 poor families in Rungkut district. She joined the training program organized by the Information and Technical Computer Management Institute (STIKOM) in Surabaya, provided for free to the needy for a year.

Tutik, whose previous work as a factory worker earned her Rp 500,000 (approximately US$55.50) a month, hoped she could get a better job after completing the course.

Tutik had recently been offered a job with a monthly salary of Rp 800,000, but on the condition she could master the computer.

"I initially intended to take a computer course before I joined this program, but the fee was too expensive for me," she said.

"I'm tired of living a poor life, so I'll try hard to learn the skills provided for free so I can improve my family's economic condition," said Tutik, whose family relies on her husband's work as a menial laborer that earns him less than Rp 1 million a month.

STIKOM also provides free training on electronics and electrical repair, silk-screen printing, food catering, batik and handicraft making.

Ahmad, 25, was one of the 91,158 unemployed youths in Surabaya. He also took the electronics training program in hopes of getting a job after the course.

A junior high graduate, Ahmad had no means of continuing his studies at a vocational school or taking a course in electronics.

"I am very grateful to have joined the program for free," he said.

STIKOM's community service division head Rudy Setiawan said his academy would apply the tutor-to-student guidance approach.

"We will also give rewards in the form of tool kits and technical devices to those who excel in the training and who are never absent from classes," he said.

Rudy said the academy would continue to develop the program and extend it to those in need in Surabaya in the future.