YOUTH AND PREHISTORY VOLCANO OF NGLANGGERAN

  

The prehistory volcano in Nglanggeran village of Gunungkidul Regency has rows of exquisite stone, a good place for those loving 'tracking'. Beside hiking trail and rock climbing spot, an artificial reservoir at the top of the hill is a perfect location to relax and enjoy sunrise or sunset. This place also provides facilities for those who want a live-in tourism to enjoy village-living atmosphere. It is a quite attractive place as a tourist destination and adventure, isn't it ?

How can this location be promoted as a potential tourist destination? The beginning spirit is interesting to know as a reference to do rural communities empowerment and it should be disseminated further among young people. Sugeng Handoko, as the manager and initiator of the tourist area of ​​prehistory volcano, explained that this prehistory volcano site was considered having no value, and impossible to give benefits to local community, eventhough it has water spring supplying clean water for its surrounding dwellers. To keep the debit of the water spring, the residents maintain the volcano well.

In 2006, a powerful earthquake shook Yogyakarta and it becomes an immortal memory for the people in Yogyakarta. It also gave great impacts to people of Nglanggeran and triggered sense of solidarity among youth, especially in youth clubs. The spirit of solidarity became the main capital to lead them share information and initiate synergized activities. Furthermore, the earthquake damaged some water springs and make them disappear from  this area, so that the residents took some efforts to reserve water.

Year of 2007 was the starting time to think and manage the area seriously and continuously. A Student Gathering of Ahmad Dahlan University was the first event held in this place. Since then, the location was considered as a tourist area. Sugeng Handoko said that the hardest pase was in the beginning because people were hard to be accept his idea. They assumed that rows of stones has no meaning so it became strange and impossible when residents heard that the area would be developed as a tourist area.

"The main process that must be done is to build awareness of local residents and change their perspective," said Sugeng Handoko. Uneasy situation happened when he attempted to build network between youth clubs with local government and make them support the idea. It took time to get funding from the government. They wanted to see the youth efforts first. After knowing the prospect and potency of the area, finaly the government gave development funds. Another breakthrough is seeking CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds from companies, such as bank, oil company and other state-owned enterprises.

"Process to find a donor for the area development should be done continuously. It becomes very difficult because at first we do not have access for a single information or do not understand the procedure  to apply a proposal and the lack of power to lobby donors," Sugeng Handoko added.

Social Entrepreneurship Training initiated by Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta on 22 - 24 August 2014, be a way of spreading the spirit and ideas to see development potency for local areas and community, as done by Sugeng Handoko in Nglanggeran.

Of course, there are many other potential areas in Indonesia, so it becomes very important for the youth and students of Stube-HEMAT to understand the social-entrepreneurship and learn potency of their homeland. This interesting discussion with Sugeng Handoko added new insight for the team and activists of Stube-HEMAT who joined a visit to Nglanggeran on July 2, 2014. Next, students are expected to join this Social Entrepreneurship Training.