Family Hope Program Boasts and Brings Challenges

WEST BANDUNG (June 25th 2020) - The Family Hope Program (PKH) is a program that is trusted by the government in dealing with poverty issues. This was conveyed by the Director General of Social Protection and Security, Pepen Nazaruddin when he opened the PKH Coordination and Quality Improvement Meeting in West Bandung, Thursday (25/6).

"How important PKH is in the eyes of the government, so that when something happens, both disaster and poverty, PKH becomes the first program to be mentioned," Pepen said in front of Human Resources of PKH.

He said it was a matter of pride for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Human Resources who played a role in the program, but at the same time it was also a challenge in itself.

"The challenge is we have to prove that PKH can be relied on in poverty alleviation," he added.

For this reason, Pepen instructed not to stop updating two things in PKH implementation, namely the mechanism and its human resources.

"First, keep updating the mechanism because basically this PKH is a social assistance distribution mechanism," pleaded Pepen.

Meanwhile, the second thing that needs to be updated, according to him, is human resources. "These cannot be left behind, the mechanism is advanced, the human resources are still lacking or otherwise," he added.

He emphasized the importance of continuing to develop human resource capacity in accordance with their respective duties and functions in the field through meetings to improve the quality of PKH’s Human Resource.

"So, meetings like this are a small part of our efforts to continue to improve the professionalism of PKH human resources, both companions who directly meet beneficiary families (KPM) in the field, as well as the officers who are in charge of managing data," said by man with glasses.

The activity which was carried out at one of the hotels in the Parahyangan Baru City area was attended by the Director of Family Social Security, Rachmat Koesnadi and the Head of the West Java Provincial Social Service, Dodo Suherman.

According to Rachmat, the objective of this coordination meeting is to provide encouragement and motivation for PKH human resource to work more optimally in order to achieve program targets effectively by promoting courtesy, integrity, and professionalism.

"Meanwhile, we will hold this coordination meeting in 6 provinces, namely Banten, DKI Jakarta, West Java, DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, and Lampung," he explained.

Approximately 245 PKH HR throughout West Bandung Regency participated in the activity. However, only 35 people appeared directly at the location of the activity including 1 Regional Coordinator (Korwil), 3 Regency Coordinators (Korkab), 19 District Coordinators (Korcam), and 12 PKH Facilitators. Meanwhile, the rest participate in activities through connected virtual media.

Even though the activity took place face-to-face, health protocol procedures were still considered, including checking body temperature before entering the meeting room, implementing distance between participants, and placing hand sanitizers on each table.

Education Hold Your Own Prosperous Family Card

The task of PKH Facilitators is not completed by simply ensuring PKH social assistance is received by Beneficiary Families (KPM). More than that, they are required to be able to educate their KPMs, such as introducing them to banking, holding their own Prosperous Family Card (KKS), to encouraging KPM to graduate independently.

"KPM needs to be given knowledge about the banking system so that there is an increase in financial inclusion," said the Director General.

In addition, this is also useful for reducing the number of fundamental violations that may be committed by irresponsible persons due to Prosperous Family Card (KKS) not being held by the KPM themselves.

"Well, the question how this assistance can motivate the KPM to be empowered, they can graduate early if it is needed?" asked the Director General to PKH Facilitators.

Because, he said, empowering KPM by building their own business so that incised a high graduation rate is the real achievement of a PKH Facilitator.

As a token of appreciation, the coordination meeting presented a former PKH beneficiary of West Bandung Regency in 2017, named Asih. In the last three years, she and her husband started a furniture business.

She revealed that her income from the business was already above average. She even employs several employees. "From the furniture business, I can get a profit of between five and ten million per month," said Asih to the Director General.

Now, she is financially capable and has decided to resign from PKH participation in 2020.