To provide support and an injection of spirit in services and volunteering, Student Association of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, and Anand Krishna Center Joglosemar held a dialogue between Prof. Ir. Nizam, M.Sc., DIC., Ph.D. and Anand Krishna with the theme Spirit of Service and Volunteering. They were appointed as the resource persons because Prof. Nizam and Anand Krishna are considered to have initiated and coordinated post-disaster services in Indonesia.
Prof. Nizam initiated the UGM Technical Service Post (Posyanis) activity and Anand Krishna established and directs the Mobile Center for Stress and Trauma Recovery (PPSTK) Program that is organized by the National Integration Movement (NIM), which is one of the divisions of Anand Ashram. Meanwhile, UGM Posyanis has recorded to conduct many post-disaster activities in Aceh, Bantul, Tasikmalaya, and others, by establishing temporary shelters.
Speaking of spirit and volunteering through Posyanis, Nizam said there are two things that encourage people to do something for each other. First, human beings are essentially servants, a servant who serves. The second thing is humans as caliph. "That means a useful human being, human beings who are of highest significance for others," said Nizam in KPTU Faculty of Engineering, Saturday afternoon (29/1).
The same is true for the Technical Service Post (Posyanis). In addition to the two values, this post was also established because he was motivated by a television show after the tsunami in Aceh. "I was very sad to see a father with his son trying to escape the disaster. At that time, my heart was shaken and I immediately wanted to do something. Then, with all my heart and spirit, Mr. Ikaputra and I with only a ticket in hand and the shirts we were wearing went to Aceh. We didn't know what would happen; eventually, while we were there we managed to build shelters in two villages in Aceh," he said.
Convinced that the disaster is an opportunity to improve things, Nizam conveyed about the golden opportunity that may be achieved by the nation of Indonesia in 2020-2035. In that period, the number of productive age is more so that this nation is expected to enter the five major world economic powers. "Therefore, we should not become a 'crab' nation, pulling each other but we cannot achieve the goal," said Secretary of the Board of Higher Education, Ministry of National Education.
Similar opinion was delivered by Anand Khrishna, that many religious values, socio-cultural, and other values could underlie a person to volunteer. Related to the laws of nature, Anand explained if a person works for himself, nature will also meet their needs only enough for one person. However, if someone works for up to 1,000 or 2,000 people, nature also will respond by giving more. "So, it is proper for us to work for others with no strings attached," he explained.
Anand warned there are four important things that need to be obtained as volunteers, the sensitivity, sincerity, solution, and skill. "So, a volunteer before going to the field has to master the four things because in addition to sensitive and sincerity, he should have provision for problem solving and skills," Anand added.