IPB University’s Dosen Pulang Kampung Programme Opens the Eyes of Girijaya Indigenous People to the Potential of the Village
Girijaya Village in Sukabumi, West Java hosted IPB University’s Dosen Pulang Kampung (Dospulkam) activity led by Dr Eva Rachmawati. This activity aims to invite indigenous people to discuss the potential they have, both in terms of culture, tourism, and biological wealth.
Various activities were held in Girijaya Village, including focus group discussions (FGDs) guided by IPB University lecturers. The FGD aimed to provide the community with an understanding of the introduction and utilisation of village potential, including an inventory of existing potential.
Topics discussed included various village potentials such as cultural products (huniah houses, crafts, traditional food), physical potentials (waterfalls, rice fields, camping ground), and biological potentials (vegetation and animals).
“Girijaya Village has a high wealth of tourism potential that can be explored, even from every little thing that is inherent in the community, especially the cultural aspects,” Dr Eva said in one of the discussion sessions.
She emphasised that this activity aims to increase community initiative in utilising the potential of their village. “Hopefully, through this activity the community can take more initiative in utilising the potential they have,” Dr Eva added.
The community service activity entitled ‘Improving Community Welfare and Cultural Preservation through Culture-Based Tourism Development in Girijaya Traditional Village, Sukabumi’ was conducted through discussions and FGDs on four areas: tourism potential development, tourism programme development, landscape mapping, and digital marketing.
With this activity, the people of Girijaya Village are expected to be more familiar with and develop the tourism potential in their village. This potential is not only limited to cultural products and physical tourism, but also includes the biological wealth of the village.
This Dospulkam IPB University activity is one of the efforts to encourage the indigenous people of Girijaya Village to manage and promote their village potential independently. This step is expected to improve community welfare through sustainable utilisation of local potential.
Overall, this activity received a positive response from the people of Girijaya Village. The Chief of Girijaya Village and local traditional leaders were also present to officially open this activity. “They feel helped by the guidance from IPB University lecturers and hope that similar activities can continue in the future. Thus, the potential of the village can continue to be explored and utilised for the common welfare,” said Dr Eva. (*/Rz) (IAAS/RSL)
