Poverty Watch: Training center provides poor with entrepreneurial skills

Indra Harsaputra ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Pasuruan, East Java   |  Wed, 06/11/2008 10:37 AM  |  The Archipelago

Four years ago, Kaiman was a public bus driver with a monthly income of around Rp 600,000 (US$66.60). Now, each month the 48-year old man earns more than Rp 10 million.

The key, Kaiman said, was a "strong determination to change my destiny".

The turnaround came in 2005 when he quit his job and started focussing on producing mushrooms, known locally as jamur tiram (Pleurotus ostreatus).

An entrepreneurship training center helped him with the start-up capital, which he used for seeds and medium to plant the mushrooms.

The center, established as a community social responsibility (CSR) program by cigarette producer PT HM Sampoerna, has various life skills training facilities, including an integrated field to breed livestock, fish and agricultural products.

Kaiman joined a two-day free course on entrepreneurship at the center in 2004, where he learned how to pick a suitable business, how to begin and how to be successful.

Later, the center agreed to help him with the mushroom business because it was considered feasible.

There are many sawmills near Kaimans' home in Pasuruan, East Java. Sawdust from the mills is good to use as a medium for planting mushrooms, Kaiman said.

He joined another free course at the center on how to cultivate mushrooms.

"What I had in mind was that I had to be successful. I no longer had a job. Day and night I kept trying and trying," Kaiman said, adding that the center had sent a supervisor to help him start and to develop the business.

In the beginning, Kaiman said, his maximum monthly gross income was around Rp 500,000. After six months, however, his revenue grew bigger and bigger. Now he employs 12 workers.

Kaiman's success inspired around 30 of his neighbors to follow in his footsteps. Together they formed a mushroom entrepreneurs group, with Kaiman as the chairman. The group still receives supervision from the center.

The Sampoerna entrepreneurship training center attracts people from nearby areas. Boediono, from the East Java regency of Malang, has enjoyed similar success.

Previously unemployed, the 43-year-old started a mushroom cultivation business in November 2007 with help from the center.

He did so with eight other unemployed people from his village. Since then, their combined profits have reached Rp 40 million, excluding the monthly Rp 1 million cash which each of the group members has been receiving.

PT HM Sampoerna community development manager Yustinus Herisetiawan said success depended mainly on efforts of individuals in realizing their dreams.

"We are just acting as facilitators," Yustinus said.

This may explain why not all 700 entrepreneur groups being supervised from East Java have enjoyed the same success.

Something else changed in Kaiman since he decided on a new course in his life. He no longer squanders his earnings on small bets.

He still, as in the past, takes chances like quitting his job and recruiting ex-prisoners to work for him, but that is part of being an entrepreneur.

But, Kaiman said, "I have quit gambling".

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