InfoSAWIT, SEBATIK – Pesantren or religious boarding school (Islam) becomes the backbone of cultural and religious development. But in the past few years, many pesantren sometimes focused on social and religion only while their big roles in economic contribution in national scale were left behind.
Since Indonesia got its independence-day, the children who study in pesantren and pesantren contributed to develop this nation. But as religious and social issues dominated, the real challenges are about the economic and welfare fairness. That is why it needs to shift the focus to expand the children’s knowledge to get social and economic direction.
To get it done, Program Santripreneur Sawit or Palm Oil Santripreneur Program comes up as the innovative challenges for many pesantren in palm oil plantation regions. The program would encourage the children to get involved in palm oil industries from the upstream to downstream sectors. Vice President of Indonesia, K.H. Makruf Amin initiated the program to develop entrepreneurship unit in many pesantren.
This program would cover not only to develop the children’s skills in entrepreneurship but also would confirm that they would have strong moral. Pesantren is hoped to fulfill their own needs and would get larger market network in phase.
By integrating pesantren into small and medium industry particularly in palm oil plantation regions, it is hoped that the pesantren would be the sustainable economic center.
“Asosiasi Petani Kelapa Sawit Indonesia (Apkasindo) as the developer in Program Santripreneur Sawit would deliver not only development, guidance for the children not only in upstream sector but also in the management and process of palm oil derivative products,” Apkasindo mentioned as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Sunday (26/11/2023).
By having the children’s performance that have entrepreneur shill and still have strong moral values, it is hoped Program Santripreneur Sawit would make entrepreneur generations that would succeed not only in economy but also have good religion, contribute positively to get sustainable development in Indonesia. (T2)
