UNAIR NEWS – UNAIR SIKIA students have made another proudest achievement. This time it comes from the Environmental Action by Young People competition from Ecoranger X UNICEF on Saturday (15/4/2023). SIKIA team wins Environmental Action Funding.

The team called Envirangers consisted of 3 students from the School of Health and Natural Sciences (SIKIA) UNAIR Banyuwangi. The team consists of Firrial Eksa Maulidania Putri (SIKIA Public Health Undergraduate program, Class of 2021), Muhammad Ridwan (SIKIA Public Health Undergraduate program, Class of 2022), and Diza Ulya Nurfaizah (SIKIA Public Health Undergraduate program, Class of 2022). They won Ecoranger X UNICEF funding.

Head of the team, Firrial Eksa Maulidania Putri, said the competition was an initial step for young people to take real action in Indonesia. The team showed a sense of joy and happiness because they managed to win first place nationally. Later, the team will receive funding to carry out real action on their idea.

“Alhamdulillah we’re thrilled as we also did not expect to get to this point. Thank God we won the first national prize, “ she said.

Make chicken feather waste POC

The problem of chicken feather waste has made the Sobo Beach environment dirty and smelly. Moreover, the coastal area has a lot of organic and inorganic waste from marine debris.

Given these problems and potential, Firrial and her colleagues provided an alternative solution by making chicken feathers POC, including beach cleaning actions with the community at Sobo Beach, Banyuwangi.

“We will create POC from chicken feather waste which is safe and environmentally friendly. In order to reduce pollution caused by chicken feathers and make Sobo Beach clean from garbage,” she said.

Waste treatment and tourism improvement

Firrial said she has five action strategies for waste management and improving the tourist sites. First, the segregation of chicken feather waste. Second, making organic liquid fertilizer from chicken feather waste.

Third, socialization programs on environmental health and waste management. Fourth, the Sobo beach clean-up action. Fifth, action to improve tourism by planting pine trees. The program’s implementation will be carried out by their own team and student volunteers in the Germanium program.

“We will process chicken feather waste which incidentally has no selling value, into organic liquid fertilizer,”.

Commitment and struggle during competition

After passing the competition selection, the team conducted a few mentoring sessions for proposal development for approximately one month. Firrial said that when advancing to Top 30 stages, it was necessary to refine the proposals even more deeply, even in a very short time.

Meanwhile, when they passed the Final 9 phase of the selected proposals, they practiced preparing the final judging. The judges were people who are competent in the environmental field, including representatives of UNICEF, KLHK, Ecoranger, and Greeneration.

“This is a new challenge and experience for us. We also learned a lot from their suggestions and inputs,” she said.

The SIKIA Public Health student hopes to carry out the program well and achieve the target indicators that have been designed so that the program can provide action and a real positive impact on society and the environment sustainably.

“We also hope that a series of activities from our program will be completed by the end of May. However, the use of chicken feather waste that we have initiated can be carried out sustainably,” she hoped.

Author: Azhar Burhanuddin

Editor: Feri Fenoria

Source: https://unair.ac.id/en/sikia-students-win-ecoranger-x-unicef-funding/