UNS — The threat of the third wave of Covid-19 is increasingly visible and is worsened with the new Omicron variant that has spread to several countries. In preventing the third wave of Covid-19 in Indonesia, the students of the Geography Education Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta took the initiative to establish Covid-19 Disaster Resistant Village.
The students in Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) Grant of Geography Education team made Simo Village, Simo Subdistrict, Boyolali District as a Disaster Reliant Village. In the program held in three months from September to November 2021, the team helped in mapping the spread of Covid-19 in the village. Simo village was selected because it was the first village affected by the second wave of Covid-19 in the Boyolali District between July and August 2021. Since then, the local government has made numerous efforts, including vaccination in collaboration with TNI/Polri, to return their region into the green zone and control the Covid-19 infection level.
Determined not to let the same thing reoccur in the village, Simo Village continuously improving its system with the help from MBKM Grant Team UNS. Various activities were programmed by the 10-members team, including mapping of Covid-19 spread in the previous wave. The mapping includes location plotting with borders of hamlets, public facilities, and demographic data. The team created an administrative map for Simo Village, population density map, Covid-19 spread map, Covid-19 risk map, Covid-19 threat map, Covid-19 capacity map, and Covid-19 vulnerability map, as references for the village government in preventing and handling the current pandemic.
Aida Nur Azqiya, the team coordinator, thanked Simo Village for the collaboration and hoped that the program could continue in the future. The team supervised by Dr. Rita Noviani, S.Si., M.Sc., and Dr. Pipit Wijayanti, S.Si., M.Sc., also established Covid-19 volunteer group with Karang Taruna Desa Simo members through socialization on the mitigation of Covid-19 and counseling on Covid-19 Disaster Resistant Village by inviting the Regional Disaster Mitigation Board of Boyolali District.
The team also conducts training Serambi Tani for the local people to improve people’s economic resilience in facing natural and non-natural disasters. The program that is aimed at housewives and members of Simo Village PKK provides training for polybag planting methods for various plants such as eggplant, chili, and tomato that match Simo Village topography. The participants also learned to make liquid organic fertilizers (POC) from household wastes such as vegetables and fruits wastes, rice water, and microbial liquid. These materials were fermented to produce POC.
Simo Village Chief, Mujiono, S.Sos., shared his delight in the program and hoped that the program could run smoothly till the end. “As Simo Village Chief, I thanked all students for dedicating (your program) to our village. Hopefully, this program could benefit us,” Mujiono stated. Humas UNS
Reporter: Ida Fitriyah
Editor: Dwi Hastuti