Global Interaction

For Sustainable Development

Global interaction is inevitable, and even becomes requirements, especially for students having advantage from technology advancements that enable communication and encounter limitation because of distance, space and time among people to transfer knowledge, to add experience and to expand networks for the improvement of human life quality itself based on the indicators of sustainable development purposes. Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta as a student mentoring institution opened to be the host students for students group from Department of Sociology at Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University, Hannover. They learned Indonesia sustainable development, in Yogyakarta on August 8-10, 2019.

This activity became a means for Indonesian and German students to deepen their understanding of different cultures and political systems, share ideas and experiences related to aspects of sustainable development, such as health, environmental education and others. Stube-HEMAT Executive Director, Ariani Narwastujati, S.Pd, S.S, M.Pd, welcomed them and explained about the city of Yogyakarta through video and promoting the philosophical axis of the city. The Coordinator of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta, Trustha told about Stube-HEMAT activities in Yogyakarta, Sumba and Bengkulu. Andreas Kurschat, group coordinator from Hannover, introduced the group and explained the purpose of coming to Indonesia with several students to observe the social life and health of the Indonesian people, especially in Semarang, Central Java and to learn cultural uniqueness in Yogyakarta with Stube-HEMAT.

The practice of doing ‘batik’ became the first experience for students from Hannover, to appreciate the Javanese cultural heritage that UNESCO has recognized as the world heritage. The team of Stube-HEMAT accompanied them to make batik starting from determining patterns and drawing on fabric. They showed enthusiasm since the first time and poured liquid wax into cloth using ‘canting’ carefully. Even though the wax dripped outside the pattern lines several times, it did not dampen their spirits and continued to dye batik using the ‘colet’ technique.

Brief information about Philosophical Axis intrigued them to visit several locations of the Philosophical Axis from Krapyak Stage to the north to South square, then from Tugu to the south through streets of Marga Utama, Malioboro, Marga Mulya and Pangurakan, to North square of Kraton Yogyakarta on foot. The deep meaning of the symbols seized their attention to achieve the glory of human life, and the existence of various types of plants in the Philosophical Axis strengthen the concern on the environment.

The discussion with Bethesda Community Development in Yogyakarta, as one community assistance to improve the quality of health, gave participants an understanding about Healthy Indonesia Program through Family Approach (PIS-PK) which is realized by mentoring the health services for mothers, infants and families, nutritional adequacy and availability of health service facilities in several villages in East Sumba regency, Alor regency and Malaka regency. Those three areas are in East Nusa Tenggara Province.

Campus attention about the quality of public health was discussed with Medical Faculty of Duta Wacana Christian University in Yogyakarta, and doctor Teguh Kristian Perdamaian, who gives lecture in General Medicine and Public Health Sciences. He revealed the reasons why a person postpones health matters such as insurance, periodic examinations and medication. The reasons are ( 1) low education, due to low literacy and lack of health promotions, (2) financial limitations, related to non-medical issues such as transportation costs, accommodation during medical care and loss of income, (3) family and cultural influences, related with family decisions, culture background and alternative medicine, and (4) psychological aspects, such as emotional constraints and people's perception on their disease.

The visit to the Sultan’s palace completed a series of learning about the Palace's commitment to preserve cultural heritages in the form of teachings, life philosophy and various forms of art, as well as heritage objects such as the palace building and collections of literature and antiques.

Hopefully with a variety of experiences from cross-nation student interactions, field observations and discussions taught each student to respect human existence and life values for life survival on earth. (TRU).