Muara Gembong – PT Bridgestone Tire Indonesia (Bridgestone Indonesia), part of Bridgestone Corporation, a global leader in Sustainable Mobility Services and High-Level Solutions, again conducted assistance and batik training focusing on the use of canting and electric canting for 20 young people in Bahagia Beach Village, Muara Gembong.
This training is a form of Bridgestone Indonesia’s continued support in coastal resource conservation efforts coupled with community empowerment, especially in developing coastal resource-based products.
After last year’s training targeting mothers who are members of the women’s organization group “Kebaya”, this training also involved young people as target participants.
In the training which lasted for seven days with a total of 56 hours of learning, Bridgestone Indonesia collaborated with the Indonesian Conservation Youth Foundation as trainers and assistants in using mangrove plants and waste products to produce value-added handicrafts.
As for some of the material provided to the trainees, namely how to innovate in the use of paper waste as canting material, introduction to tools and materials for natural dye batik, use of electric canting and canting paper waste, and making batik with natural dyes from mangroves. During this training process, 55 batik cloths were ready to sell, measuring 2.2 x 1.15 meters, which could be used to make one shirt.
“We hope that this program can have a positive impact on empowering mothers and young people in the area around the mangrove forest in the use of coloring materials based on mangrove plant natural resources which will certainly be more sustainable.
We are also grateful that the community in Muara Gembong also has a resilient and independent mentality in seeking to grow skills and competencies in this batik work,” said Human Resources & General Affairs (HRGA) Director of PT Bridgestone Tire Indonesia, Yunus Triyonggo.
“This activity is very beneficial for us. I learned so much from this training and I managed to make three batik cloths in seven days, and hope to sell them as soon as possible, so that we can have more capital to make new batik cloths,” said one of the batik training participants, Siti Hamidah, who lives in Kampung Beting. She added that during the training, she and other participants had sold 18 pieces of batik, which were sold for Rp 300,000/batik.
In this training, Bridgestone targeted youth participants in Bahagia Beach Village who have graduated from high school / vocational high school equivalent but have not been able to continue to a higher level due to economic factors. The lack of livelihoods in Bahagia Beach Village encourages Bridgestone to involve these youths in local empowerment activities, so as to help the community have an income to meet their daily needs.
In the future Bridgestone will strive for this community economic empowerment activity to be sustainable, one of which is by supporting the sale of products produced by ordering for souvenirs at the office, employee cooperatives, participating in various exhibition events and online sales.
This community empowerment activity is in line with the Bridgestone E8 Commitment, especially the Ecology & Empowerment sector, and supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8, namely decent work and economic growth.
