Contributor RR Padang

1.     The Global Employment Challenges Workshop

“On January 13th, 2013, RR Padang held its first alumni event. How to prepare our self for the global challenge, what positive effect by joining communities, kinds of skills to have, and challenges in the workplaces were the subtopics discussed. Mr. Adi Harsono, the speaker, said that the challenges founds nowadays are how to find someone who has soft skills, good attitude, and high aptitude. These motivational words were emphasized to 15 alumni attending in this workshop. In addition, January 13th, 2013 is the date when RR Padang was established. We prove that we can share, learn and encourage by doing various beneficial activities so far.

2.     Your Blood Makes You a Hero: Share Blood, Share Life

It is noted that just one pint of blood can save three lives. On Earth, there are millions of people who need blood transfusion because of surgeries, car accidents, wars, natural disasters, etc. Because of this reason, the RR Padang held a blood donation campaign on  April 14^th, 2013 titled Your Blood Makes You a Hero: Share Blood Share Life at H. Gor Agus Salim, Padang. The campaign was attended by 22 participants consisted of 7 alumni and 8 grantees from the State University of Padang and Bung Hatta University, and 3 doctors and 4 employees from the Padang Red Cross. The program began with (a) brief explanation from doctor about the requirements, the procedures of blood transfusion, tips for successful donation and management of adverse reactions to patients.

3.     Early Detection Program of Breast and Cervical Cancer Seminar

As a form of awareness, RR Padang held Cervical and Breast Awareness, Saturday, 15 June 2013. It is considered that cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that can affect any part of the body. From some main types of cancer, cervical and breast cancer cause the most cancer deaths each year.The lack of effective screening and treatment program is the main reason why the rate of cervical cancer is higher in Indonesia. However, there are plenty of risk factors and early warning signs to be aware of when it comes to breast cancer. With a family member that had breast cancer have twice the probability of getting the cancer. Women who get their first menstrual periods before they are 10 years old and those who experience menopause above 55 years old should also watch out for any breast abnormalities. In this seminar, RR Padang cooperated with Dinas Kesehatan Kota Padang by inviting dr. Melinda as a speaker. There were 114 participants in this beneficial seminar.

 4.     Sharing and Caring for Orphans

RR Padang held fun activities along with 56 orphans at Al Falah Orphanage, Tabing Padang, July 30^th, 2013. Many kinds of activities done including English game, quiz, sharing session, story-telling, and poetry reading. This event was held based on our concern about young brothers and sisters who lived in orphanage. At the end of this event, we ate and then prayed together.

5.     Implementation of the 2013 Curriculum for English Subject: Getting Smart Students through Effective Curriculum Implementation

This seminar was held on November 1st, 2013 as one of the ways to communicate the change of education curriculum in Indonesia to the educators. RR VDMS cooperated with Pascasarjana State University of Padang to conduct this event. It was held at 5th floor of Pascasarjana UNP by inviting Prof. Dr. Hermawati Syarief, M. Hum and Dr. Desmawati Radjab, M.Pd as spekaers. It was very important for all teachers not only to be familiar but also to know how to implement the new curriculum. By giving 2013 curriculum information to the teachers, it was hoped they can implement it necessarily in the classroom. There were 147 participants consisting of headmasters, teachers, and students.

 6.     Free TOEFL Practice Test and Tricks: TOEFL brings you go abroad

VDMS in cooperation with Faculty of Social Sciences, State University of Padang held a TOEFL test and tricks for college students who were interested in taking TOEFL. It was held Saturday, 7 December 2013. 89 students joined the event and felt fully satisfied with the program. Most of the students wanted to continue their study abroad after joining this event.

 7.     School farming at SMP 31 Padang “Let’s Plant for A Living

Celebrating Earth Day around April can be a great way for schools to showcase environmental education to the students.  This event was held by Earth Hour Community in cooperation with VDMS Alumni Association of West Sumatera, Grand Zuri Padang Hotel and Padang Berkebun Community on Saturday, April 26^th, 2014.  It gave opportunities for both to teach about a particular selected issue and make a tangible environmental impact. The students were asked to plant seeds such as spinach, mustard, mango and orange. At the beginning of this event, the participants were divided into groups consisting of ten students with one advisor from Padang Berkebun Community. Each group was given a knife and a bottle of mineral water to make vase or flowerpot. Then they were guided to plant the seeds well.

8.  Tree Planting and Green up My School Part I

Wednesday, October 22^nd, 2015 RR Padang with the support of Sumatra Barat Forestry Service held an event to get students involved in planting trees, fruits, and vegetable seeds as an environmental care. The event was held at SD 37 Pagambiran, Padang West Sumatra. There were 50 kinds of seeds that were given to be planted around the school such as fruits seeds (Durian seeds, Mangoes, Orange, Soursop), vegetable seeds (Cucumber, Green Bean, Spinach), tree seeds (Gaharu, Banyan, etc). The headmaster of SD 37, Dalmihar said that he was very happy because student was engaged in planting tree through this program. “This activity provides the students an opportunity of learning to take care the environment and grow their commitment of environmental protection.”

9. AA VDMS Padang Goes on Air

On Sunday, November 9^th, 2014 BOOS Radio 104.2 FM, Padang kindly invited RR Padang for an on-air interview. In 60 minutes, we discussed about VDMS itself and how the foundation facilitates its members not only regarding maintaining the network and support amongst them but also uphold a good relation with the educational partners all over Indonesia as well. We also talked about how VDMS monitors the educational progress and career of its grantees and alumni.

10. “World Water Day Celebration”

Celebrating World Water Day on March, 22^nd was a great way for VDMS RR Padang to invite all people to take care of health, water and environment. This event was be held by VDMS AA Padang in cooperation with Earth Hour Padang. This event was started by collecting plastic waste around GOR Agus Salim. All of the plastic waste were put into sacks and then delivered to the factory that recycles them. In this event, we also asked people around the area to join us in picking up the garbage and then provided the information about the dangerous effects of plastic waste. We also take a small boat to clean the water from the garbage.

11. Let’s Save Sea Turtles: Maintaining The Health of Our Ocean!

On March 28^th, 2015 RR Padang held “Save Sea Turtles” event at Pariaman Beach, West Sumatra.This event was attended by 3 Alumni and 6 grantees of VDMS. We visited Turtle Conservation Office at Pariaman before releasing sea turtles. We also received a presentation about Sea Turtles and its conservation.

12. Plastic Recycling: From Waste to Useful Products

It is noted approximately 1.7 ton of plastic waste are produced every week in Padang. The big question is can plastic be recycled? How to recycle plastic waste? Plastic waste is different from paper. More paper is collected for recycling than plastic, aluminum, and glass combined.  This situation inspires RR Padang to find the best way to recycle plastic waste, Sunday (19/4/2015). One event entitled Bijak Kertas became one of worthwhile event in recycling plastic. Even though most of us still learning how to recycle properly, we did try to make something different through this event.

13. Talk Show: Building International Carrier

It’s Time to Build Our Future is the title of national talk show that was held by RR VDMS Padang along with grantees at Auditorium of Faculty of Economic, State University of Padang, Thursday (7/5/2015). This event was initiated as an answer of “What are you going to do after the graduation?” This is a common question but many people take a long time to think about the answer. The committee arranged this seminar very well, as consequence there are more than 335 participants taking place to come. They are from different universities in Padang, such as State University of Padang, Bung Hatta University, STKIP PGRI Padang, Andalas University, and State Polytechnic of Padang.

14. RR Padang Coastal Care: Cleaning the Beach.

Beach Clean Up was what we held as the big family of VDMS Padang. 7 alumni and 30 grantees participated in the event. We started at 7 o’clock and met up at State University of Padang. We walked to the beach together. Before cleaning up the area, we did a warm up exercise while enjoying the fresh air at the beach. We began cleaning up along the beach by picking up trash, plastic and weeding the grass then putting them into sacks.

15.

 

The crisis of haze affected some areas in Indonesia especially the islands of Sumatra and Borneo since the end of June. This turns into international problem for other countries from September. Even more than 28 million people in Indonesia alone are affected by the crisis, and more than 140,000 reported respiratory illnesses. Because of this situation, the big family of VDMS Padang (alumni and grantees) initiated to go from school to school to distribute free masks to Elementary School students, (Tuesday, 13/10).This actions was started from SD Pembangunan at State University of Padang nearly at 09.00 am. VDMS grantees and alumni entered class to class to inform students the effect of hazardous haze and then distributed thousand masks. The students were very excited to talk about this particular issue. They ask many questions regarding the dangerous effect of haze for health, its causes, and the center point of fire in the forest. “The hazy condition is very unhealthy. This situation happens because people set the forest on fire,” said Gino, Grade 3 student at SD Pembangunan. VDMS distributed 150 masks for students and 20 for teachers and academic staffs at SD Pembangunan. We then moved to continue our activity at SD 55 Askes Ayia Pacah, Padang. In this school, the young students were trained how to wear the mask correctly.

16. Get Ready For Studying and Working Abroad

For many times, the big family of VDMS Padang has held international seminars entitled “Go International, Why Not!” Wednesday (04/11/2015) at Engku Syafe’i LPMP SUMBAR, Komp. UNP Air Tawar Barat. There were 24 grantees taking part in it, VDMS alumni, and cooperation with other institution to run this event. There were nearly 310 participants who were interested by various topics given during the event such as Continuing Study by Scholarship, How to work in Australia and Trick to be successful for IELTS Test. The speakers for the occasion were from IDP Australia Jakarta, alumni of several universities in Australia, and Jakarta Immigration office. From IDP Australia Jakarta, the participants got information about what should be prepared if they want to continue their study in Australia such as English Proficiency Test (e.g. IELTS, etc.)

17. Caring for Students with Special Needs

Children with special needs require different methods of learning and also teaching. They need special care and assistant. It motivated VDMS Padang to visit Special Need School 1 Pauh, Padang on Wednesday, December 16, 2015. This is a school for children with physical disorders, psychiatric disorders, emotional problems, behavioral problems, learning disorders or disabilities. There were three alumni took part in this event, they are Afdal, Dios, Rezky and also five grantess; Randi, Fuji, Rifa, Elfi and Gelora. This event taught us mutual sharing with the disabled students as form of thanksfulness and responsibility of what we have, to understand each other because  we are human being, and to encourage in achieving good life and bright future.

18. International Motivation Seminar

VDMS in cooperation with Time Language Center held International Motivation Seminar on Saturday, December 19^th, 2015. The seminar attended by students who get scholarship to study abroad. One of the topics discussed was Work and Holiday Visa, in which the participants were given information about working abroad.

 

A2A E – Newsletter Vol. 50 | V | 2016

May 2016