The Secretary-General has received the following statement, which is being circulated in accordance with paragraphs 30 and 31 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
* The present statement is issued without formal editing.
Statement
Achieving empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality cannot happen without access to quality education for all which is a critical to creating societies that enable opportunities to achieve more.
Ma'had Alzaytun (MAZ) is the Educational Centre in the Western Java Indonesia, where everyone can the acquire knowledge and skills necessary for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation.
The 1200 HA land in which MAZ is situated is predominantly agricultural land, depended on the rain irrigation reservoir. MAZ works hard to build irrigation, with a big dam under construction. 400 HA of the land is used to produce rice in cooperation with local farmers, with the Nucleus and Plasma systems. With the program MAZ shares its agricultural knowledge with local people who rely heavily on agricultural resources for their livelihood and sustenance, as part of the social contribution.
As such, MAZ sees education as occupying a prominent role in development.
The exponents work hard toward the realization of its vision, where all the linked community members have equitable access to high quality education opportunities, and where education is positioned as the key intermediary to lay the foundation for inclusiveness and equality.
As part of the mission above, the Grand Chancellor of MAZ Dr. AS Panji Gumilang established the Organization called “The Farmers association for Indonesian Food Security supports”. He supervised directly the 850 farmers household participants. Each group manages at least 7 HA, with a harvest period twice annually. Each hectare produces 20 tons of grain, which means the program can
produce 7,000 tons of dry grain annually. Revenue sharing is 40%: 60%, but the farmers prefer to sell their harvests to the core, because they receive better prices than the outside market.
Benefit for the Farmers
1. Transfer of knowledge and technology.
2. Receiving good quality of rice seed.
3. Enhancing standard of life.
4. The ability to participates as teamwork.
5. Farmers learn from farmers.
Benefit for the Core (MAZ)
1. The opportunity to carry out community development.
2. A chance to distributes superior rice seeds, organic fertilizers.
4. Obtain enough rice to serve the needs of students.
5. Getting income to support educational activities.
Conclusion
The program between MAZ and the local farmers sets out for the agricultural development based on the participatory action, all within the context of empowering people to gain inclusiveness and equality.
The future of the program is profitable, because of the ongoing infrastructure development, especially irrigation, and no extreme impacts of climate change.
The program is a strong desire of MAZ to follow the United Nations in relation to sustainable development. The results were amazing as the farmers income increased enormously so their lives were worthy, and their children can pursue education for their better life in the future.
While MAZ still provides a formal education and produces thousands of talented alumni, who are now able to contribute their skills and knowledge to the general communities in all over Indonesia.