Garut, 4 December 2023. In its 27th year of serving Indonesia, PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata) through XL Axiata Baik program continues to strengthen support for people with disabilities. During the first weekend of December 2023, Chief Human Capital Officer of XL Axiata, Hira Kurnia led a dozen XL Axiata employees who are members of the Bikers of XL Axiata and MTXL to hold a series of activities in the form of donations of supporting facilities for teaching and learning activities at SLB C Yayasan Karya Bakti, to teaching activities at SLB C Nusantara Kita, Garut. In addition, the group of XL Axiata employees also provided donation for the homeless community and the poor around the Raudhatul Faizin Mosque, Jonggol District, Bogor Regency.
M. Hira Kurnia, said, "In implementing corporate social responsibility programs, XL Axiata is currently also supporting people with disabilities. We see that people with disabilities need attention because we see that there is still a lack of digital competence among people with disabilities. As directed by President Joko Widodo, Indonesia needs 600 thousand digital talents every year until 2035. XL Axiata's support for this group aims to improve digital competence so as to create competitive digital talents from people with disabilities. In line with this focus, XL Axiata Baik, an employee social program under XL Axiata Peduli, regularly holds social actions aimed at supporting disability empowerment in Indonesia."
For this social action in Garut targeting the disabled community, XL Axiata management and employees distributed donations tailored to the needs of each beneficiary. We also completed the series of activities today by distributing donations in the form of a set of GDK (Quota Donation Movement) routers and data packages of 20GB for a period of one year to the two SLBs. XL Axiata hopes that the routers and internet access donations will be utilised to improve the digital literacy of students and teachers.
Meanwhile, in teaching activities at SLB C, XL Axiata employees provide education on how to utilise digital technology to train and sharpen artistic creativity, introduction to IoT (Internet of Things) in everyday life and so on. The material was taught with the aim of sparking the enthusiasm of people with disabilities to learn digital literacy more sharply.
For people with disabilities, XL Axiata distributed data quota and routers from GDK (Quota Donation Movement) program to 27 Islamic boarding schools (ponpes) and foundations engaged in fostering people with disabilities in Indonesia. In addition to SLB C Nusantara Kita Foundation and SLB C Karya Bakti Garut Foundation, several disability development foundations that also received benefits include Pembinaan Anak Cacat Foundation (YPAC) Padang, Griya Sunnah Inclusive Islamic Boarding School – Bogor, Darul Ashom Deaf Islamic Boarding School – Sleman, and ABK (Children with Special Needs) Islamic Boarding School KH. A Dahlan – Banyuwangi.
GDK donations were also distributed to Imam Ibnu Katsir Islamic Boarding School – Pekanbaru, Muflihatul Aliyah Islamic Boarding School Lebak Banten, An-Nidhom Islamic Boarding School – Cirebon, Annuqayah Islamic Boarding School – Sumenep Madura, Al Insaniyah Free Islamic Boarding School – Surabaya, Dar Ali Al Banjary Islamic Boarding School – Banjarmasin, MDIA Bontoala Islamic Boarding School – Makassar and Darul Istiqomah Islamic Boarding School – Manado.
"These empowerment programs for people with disabilities from XL Axiata employees are certainly in line with the company's commitment to have a positive impact on society in supporting the acceleration of development in Indonesia. By focusing on areas such as MSMEs and disability inclusion, XL Axiata is committed to addressing various important social issues and contributing to the overall well-being of Indonesian society," Hira continued further.
The donation program for disabilities and Islamic boarding schools will be implemented gradually in various provinces, such as North Sumatra, Riau, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Lampung, Banten, DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Special Region of Yogyakarta and East Java. Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi. The company will collaborate with local organisations, government agencies, and community leaders to ensure effective implementation and distribution of resources.
XL Axiata Continues to Support Women's Empowerment
In addition to supporting the disabled community, XL Axiata also supports women's empowerment through the Sisternet program and digital boarding schools in a number of regions. The company has collaborated with a number of partners such as Huawei, PT Tower Bersama, PT Solusindo Kreasi Pratama, PT Era Bangun Telecomindo, Fiberhome, Mitratel, Alita, Dentsu International Indonesia, PT Pura Barutama as well as Benihbaik Foundation, Bloggercrony Indonesia Community, Peak Performance Indonesia, Resellerun, Amangtiwi Malang and Mom Digipreneur through a number of trainings that are able to encourage effective use of capital for women MSMEs to disabilities.
Chief Corporate Affairs of XL Axiata, Marwan O. Baasir said, "We hope that this program can improve the ability of women MSME players in financial literacy, digital literacy and entrepreneurship in the regions. With these capabilities, we hope that their businesses can be more advanced and developed, which in turn, in addition to supporting the family economy, can also strengthen the regional economy. It has been proven that MSMEs that are strong in performance are also able to sustain the economy in times of crisis."
Marwan added that we can find many business sectors initiated and managed by women in various regions. Their business management skills are also still as they are, with a modest level of financial and digital literacy. Therefore, XL Axiata believes that women MSMEs need assistance, especially for female MSME players.
Participants register through Sisternet application, those who successfully pass will then take part in offline training for 3 days, get a softcopy of the learning module, daily assignments, pre-test, post-test, mentoring and advanced classes. This mentoring or monitoring session will be held for three months. During the session, participants have the opportunity to consult individually with mentors and follow-up sessions that will be adjusted to the evaluation of participants' needs. In addition, mentors will also evaluate the participants' businesses by referring to information on business growth and implementation of proper business management as well as monitoring the utilisation of business capital.
The selected participants who have participated in this program will also receive business capital worth a total of IDR 150 million. Furthermore, they are expected to have the ability to manage and evaluate their business finances. Secondly, participants can develop their products effectively. Third, participants will have the ability to market their products and reach more buyers. Fourth, there will be digital transformation for the participants' businesses.