UMN Helped Curuglemo Village Start a Regional Batik Business

(Doc. The Research and Community Service Institute of UMN)

Tangerang, 12/21 – Multimedia Nusantara University (UMN) lecturers are helping to train and assist the residents of Curuglemo Village, Mandalawangi District, Pandeglang Regency, Banten, to create regionally distinctive batik design and train them on how to market them through digital media.

“The batik design created is based on the characteristics of the Curuglemo area, including the honje plants which are widely found in the village,” said Yayan Rdiyana, Head of Curuglemo Village. He was accompanied by the Head of Bumdesa, Alex Hines, during Wednesday’s closing of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Community Service Grant event.

The pioneering of the batik business of the Curuglemo area was also attended by several villagers, especially local women and Karang Taruna (Youth Community Development), accompanied by a team of UMN Lecturers, resource person, and batik maker, Itta Ernawati.

The Ministry of Education and Culture Community Service Grant event, which was held on 3-14 December 2022, brought the theme Empowering Women in regional-specific batik activities and digital media training as a means of branding and driving the Curuglemo village community’s economy. 

The UMN Community Service Team is chaired by Clemens Felix, a VCD lecturer with members Indiwan Seto Wahjuwibowo and Ardiles Akyuwen (each with different assignments according to their fields), and assisted by three students,

According to the Village Head, Yayan Rydiyana, this Community Service activity is essential for the people of Curuglemo village. He hopes that in the future, it will be followed by other activities that are important for the progress of the community.

“We admit that there are a lot of village potentials that can be developed, but Curuglemo village is constrained by human resource capacity. Therefore, the batik training activities and digital content creation training from UMN are beneficial,” Yayan said.

Meanwhile, the Community Service Team Leader, Clemens Felix Setijawan, explained that, apart from practicing batik, the UMN Team also helped train residents to use their gadgets more wisely and could encourage village branding through public speaking training, making videos, photography and creating village websites. There’s a lot of potential, but human resources are not yet qualified.

According to the Head of Curuglemo Village, the presence of UMN lecturers and students in his village was an end-of-year gift. With this event, powerless villagers became empowered, especially in making batik activities and creating social media.

On the first and second days of the training, the villagers participating in the training were given public speaking material and how to take village photos and videos. This activity was guided directly by the UMN Communications lecturer, Dr. Indiwan Seto Wahjuwibowo, and the UMN VCD Photography lecturer, Ardiles Ekyuwen.

“Actually, this village has great potential for development because it has beautiful natural resources, surrounded by beautiful hills and mountains. It’s just that there are still very few qualified human resources,” said Indiwan, who teaches residents how to be confident during public appearances through public speaking training. 

Following that, Ardiles, a Photography lecturer, taught village residents to be sensitive about using their cell phones for village promotion activities.

The second to the 14th days were filled with batik training activities with the assistance of Batik expert Itta Ernawati. The villages were taught everything from planning, looking for designs that fit the conditions of Curuglemo village, sketching, printing, and finally, making the characteristical Curuglemo batik. At the end of the event, Curuglemo villagers displayed the batik they produced from the batik training. ( T.ISW)

By The Research and Community Service Institute of UMN

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

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