A New Child: IPB University’s PKM Programme Successfully Improves Resilience of Children Who Had Dropped Out of School
IPB University students created a programme called A New Child aimed at children who had dropped out of school in Bogor. This activity is one of the Student Creativity Programmes in the field of Community Service (PKM-PM) which took place from May to June 2024.
This activity is in partnership with Rumah Visioner Foundation with the target of 15 children aged 13 years to 20 years who had dropped out of school. The main focus of this programme is strengthening inner strength, external support and problem solving to foster children’s self-resilience.
The A New Child programme was promoted by IPB University students led by Rohimatul Janah and supervised by Dr Megawati Simanjuntak from the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. The team members consisted of Eca Kartika Riyadi and Putri Rachma from the Department of Agribusiness, Grasia Dwi Cahyani Hutauruk and Muhammad Irsyad Al Debaran from the Department of Communication Science and Community Development.
Rohimatul Janah explained that the formation of this programme departed from the problems that occurred in children who had dropped out of school at Rumah Visioner. Based on interviews with the head of the foundation, the children experienced low resilience.
“They lack the resilience to learn, even to the point of not wanting to go back to school. Sometimes they are also bullied because of their background,” said Mohammad Arif Pramarta, chairman of the Rumah Visioner Foundation.
The A New Child programme is based on the three sources of resilience stated by Grotberg (1995), namely I Am (Building Inner Strength), I Have (Strengthening External Support) and I Can (Problem Solving and Creativity). Hopefully, the children will become more resilient, which means they can survive, adapt, and solve problems that occur in their lives.
“The programme is very diverse, such as writing This is Me through Child Diary book, Discovering our journey, drawing Current me vs Future me, Talk to mirror, journaling, making Precious memories, Life roadmap, A new child board game, Dream puzzle, focus group discussion, Self-regulation session and many more,” he explained.
The children admitted that the A New Child programme was very fun and made them more excited in achieving their dreams even though there were many challenges in achieving them.
The impression of this programme was expressed by one of the programme participants, Bunga. “Thank you very much PKM brothers and sisters, this programme is what we have been waiting for because it is very fun and not boring, we also become more excited and do not give up in achieving our dreams,” he said.
Elin, one of the foster siblings from the Rumah Visioner Foundation, also admitted that she was very happy because this programme was very useful for the Rumah Visioner children. “I think the A New Child programme is really cool, because you can immediately see the progress of the participants who take part in the activities,” she said.
“A simple example is Raka, he was initially shy, but after participating in the activities, he was willing to come forward, tell stories in front, and even want to perform dance before he said he was shy to dance except when he competed,” said Elin.
A New Child succeeded in increasing the resilience of children who had dropped out of school as evidenced by the parents’ statements that their children became more enthusiastic in learning, both at home and at school.
“I think it’s good, Elin. I saw the photos of Tifan going forward. He can speak up front, he is more diligent in studying, and on Sundays there are positive activities that he usually does playing games,” said Tina, one of the participants’ parents. (IAAS/RUM)
