UNAIR NEWS – School’s atmosphere which is shady and comfy must be needed to support conducive education process. The school located near mangrove area and quite hot, needs some forestation so the barren land becomes shady.

That problem was the background of Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) UNAIR students having their community service at Islamic senior high school (MAN) Surabaya located in Jalan Wonorejo Timur No.14, Surabaya. It was an implementation of Students Creativity Program Community Service (PKM-M) titled “ENVISCHO (Environmental School) Pemanfaatan Lahan Kosong Sebagai Integrasi Kepedulian Lingkungan dan Pendidikan Karakter Siswa-siswi MAN Surabaya (Vacant Land Utilization as the Integration of Environmental Concern and Character Education of MAN Surabaya Students)”.

“The school has new vacant land, still barren, so it needs forestation to be a shady and comfortable school fro the students. The school is close with mangrove area Wonorejo, so it has quite high temperature, especially with limited forestation at school,” said Muhammad Yufansyah Purnama as the head of PKM-M.

Yufansyah was not by himself in conducting the program. He was with his four friends, Pradika Annas Kuswanto, Triadna Febriani Abdiah, Aulia Sukma Hafidzah, and Shifa Fauziyah. Among them were students of Environmental Science and Technology and Biology.

The least solution of forestation offered by Yufansyah and her team was by implementing urban farming; farming method specialized for urban area with narrow spaces. The plants were local, like vegetables, herbs, or other herbal stemmed plants which is able to be harvested at once.

“The plants able to be planted hydroponic are spinach, lettuce, and water spinach. The plants have high economic values as they are often consumed by the community,” said Yufansyah.

To train environmental cadres committed to preserve the environment was this PKM-M team’s objective. The cadres were trained in some phases, brainstorming, urban farming training, organizational management training and also training on how to market the urban farming product. So the program was not only to invite the students to care about the environment but also to train their entrepreneurship skill.

“They were trained on how to market the urban farming product so it has economical value. The Envischo team provided training to utilize cape jasmine leaves. This entrepreneurship training was given to form independent and smart environmental cadres who utilize the natural resources,” said Yufansyah.

Even though the activity done on Saturday, MAN Surabaya students’ enthusiasm to join the program was high. There were many students showed up during the training. It is also caused by the school and teachers especially Biology teacher fully supported the program.

“The program was useful to improve knowledge on environment, organizational management, and new insight we can’t get from classes. Hopefully, the program can continue for the next few years, so the environmental problem at school can be solved,” said Mawardi, students of class XI MAN Surabaya who was one of the cadres in Envischo program.

Yufansyah as the head of the team hoped that the cadres he trained with his team can contribute to the wider society, not only at MAN Surabaya. He also hoped that the program can continue in the future. (*)

Author : Binti Q. Masruroh
Editor    : Nuri Hermawan