Four interfaith friends from the Jakarta area, fellow alumni of the 2023 Spiritual Initiative Changemakers Indonesia (SICI) activity, Intan, Alice, Juliana, and Karimah, continued their initiation to set up an environmental friendly house of worship at the Vihara, where Buddhist friends worship. SICI itself is a collaborative program of Ashoka Indonesia and Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah. This environmentally friendly house of worship activity was held at the Vihara located within the Sriwijaya State Buddhist College (STABN) complex in Tangerang on January 30, 2024.
Intan Mustikasari, a representative from Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah, who was one of the initiators of this activity, revealed her reasons for choosing the event location at STABN. “STABN is a centre for the development of Buddhist knowledge, and what is unique about this campus is that in some of its departments it accepts non-Buddhist religions, so we believe that the Environmental Friendly House of Worship Movement can spread widely, not only among Buddhists, but also the entire academic community at STABN ,” she said.
Furthermore, Intan said that the training for environmentally friendly houses of worship began with training in making Eco Enzyme, which started from the practice of sorting organic and non-organic waste. Then the organic waste is processed into Eco Enzyme which is rich in benefits.
“We were very happy, the Eco Enzyme training in this series of environmentally friendly houses of worship programs received a good response and support from STABN campus leaders. It was proven that this event was attended by 35 people, including the Rector of STABN, Vice Rector of STABN, students, interns, lecturers, and employees,” said Intan, who is currently active as Regional Manager and PMEAL Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah.
Apart from that, news from Intan is that the Rector of the STABN Campus will follow up on this program through an MOU. “The results of this activity will become a reference for Community Empowerment (KKN) activities for students who will enter to a community,” she said. “Eco Enzyme products from this activity will later be exhibited at the annual STABN campus festival next October,” she added enthusiastically.
Authors : Farah
