Depok, September 1st 2023. Women who are former Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) are still experiencing a number of challenges in restarting their careers. The difficulty of starting an entrepreneur due to limited information and opportunities shows that retired migrant workers are trapped in confusion in looking for business ideas, marketing products online, and creating interesting promotional content on social media.
Initiatives to empower retired migrant workers are crucial and need to involve various parties. Law Number 18 Year 2017 concerning PMI Protection mandates that PMI empowerment is part of the protection effort. The main aim of implementing empowerment for retired PMI is to prevent retired PMI from falling back into migrant workers, especially with non-procedural departures. Furthermore, retired PMIs can have the provision to increase their skills if they want to return to being migrant workers so that they can reduce the risk of problems occurring.
Migrant workers with non-procedural departures, especially women, are vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Based on research by UN Women in 2021, violence experienced by female migrant workers has serious impacts, both short and long term, on physical and mental health. The health impacts of victims of violence include injury, unwanted pregnancy, HIV, disability, depression, or even committing self-harm. Apart from that, survivors of violence also face stigma and rejection from society and their families.
In order to provide skills and support to former PMI women, the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Indonesia (UI) together with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) held community service activities (pengmas) during the month of August 2023 in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB). Service activities were carried out in the form of assistance and direct practice regarding digital entrepreneurship strategies.
The Head of the FEB UI Community Service Team, Dr. Rambat Lupiyoadi said, “We are very excited to collaborate with UN Women on this initiative. This program is in line with FEB UI’s commitment to supporting women’s empowerment and sustainable development. We believe that empowering women through digital entrepreneurship will provide long-term benefits to society.”
With the theme “Digital Entrepreneurship Assistance for Former/Retired PMI Women to Support Family Economy in West Lombok”, the UI community service team provided various hands-on training to participants using laptops and smartphones. In the training held, it was noted that the number of community service participants reached 17 migrant workers and four Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Migrant workers come from various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Dubai, and various other countries.
The training included creating a digital marketing canvas, copywriting as a promotional technique, designing creative content in the form of photos and videos, starting social media marketing and opening an online shop. Participants were also provided with the latest technological knowledge that can support the running of their business and were accompanied by a team of FEB UI lecturers online during the program.
“Digital entrepreneurship assistance for former PMI women is a concrete step in strengthening women’s position in the local economy. This collaboration is a real example of how cross-sector cooperation can create positive changes in the lives of women and their families,” said the UN Women Executive, represented by Pertiwi, at the opening of the training held in West Lombok on 19th–20th of August 2023.
Not only helping former PMI women start their own businesses, community service from UI collaboration with UN Women also contributes to sustainable economic development in the West Lombok area, NTB. It is hoped that utilizing the potential of digital entrepreneurship will have a domino effect, thereby increasing local economic growth and improving community welfare.
One of the community service participants, Nurhayati, a former migrant worker from Malaysia, enthusiastically expressed the impressive journey of her small business, which started from a valuable meeting with the community service team. “Previously, I had not started any business, but because I met Mr. Rambat in January 2023, I succeeded in developing various products such as shredded meat, chili sauce, peyek, and others, which even managed to penetrate the international market, including Hong Kong,” she said.
