SEMARANG – As an initial preparation for the “Pendekar Klambi dan Produk Ramah Lingkungan” or Clothes and Eco-Friendly Products Warriors, 21 students of the International Relations study program attended facilitator training in one of the classrooms at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro on Saturday (8/10).

Pendekar Klambi dan Produk Ramah Lingkungan” was one of the community service programs that was successfully funded through the Pertamina Foundation 2022 PFMuda social project competition scheme. This program was in the form of sewing classes to manage second-hand clothes from donations that had piled up at the Mardi Utomo Rehabilitation Center, Semarang. Therefore, the program led by one of the lecturers of the International Relations Department, Anjani Tri Fatharini, S.IP., M.A. presented an environment-based economic empowerment scheme through sociopreneur activities for fostered residents consisting of beggars, homeless, and abandoned people (PGOT) in the form of recycling second-hand clothes to become worthy items. It was hoped that this program could support the three points of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Decent Work and Economic Growth, Climate Action, and Responsible Consumption and Production.

In its implementation, this program was supported by the International Relations Department (IRUD), Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro which involved IRUD students to act as facilitators and assist the inmates for approximately three months of the program running. This training aimed to make the facilitators understand the tasks and substance of the community service program, the environment, and the program implementers themselves.

The first material on the Tri Dharma of Higher Education was delivered by Prof. Dr. Aji Prasetyaningrum, S.T., M.Sc., who came as the representative of the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM), Universitas Diponegoro. Through an explanation from Prof. Aji, students were expected to understand the importance of direct community service for the academic community of higher education in conjunction with education and research programs that were commonly carried out.

The second material on The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion: As Agenda of Sustainable Living was presented by Lisa Andriani, S.IP., M.A. who was one of the founders of the Gombal Project movement, which was a non-governmental organization engaged in recycling second-hand clothing into new products to create a sustainable life. The essence of the discussion of this material was the negative impact of the fast fashion industry which was the second largest pollutant on earth. After presenting the material, students were expected to understand the urgency of popularizing the culture of recycling second-hand clothes as an effort to protect and preserve the environment.

The last material on Entrepreneurship Education was delivered by Saefurrohman, one of the lecturers at Universitas Stikubank Semarang. The presentation discussed the target market and things that needed to be considered to create products that were in accordance with the existing market. The purpose of providing this material was that students could understand the importance of creating products that were needed by the market so that they could help direct the inmates during the coaching process which did have an output to sell the recycled products of the inmates’ second-hand clothes.

In addition, students were also provided with material on community assistance procedures so that they could play a maximum role as facilitators who were expected to maintain the level of participation of the assisted members during the program to support the achievement of the SDGs targets expected from this program.