Faculty of Animal Husbandry lecturers lead 10 Brawijaya expedition students to the outermost borders of Indonesia

Faculty of Animal Husbandry lecturer with an interest in Social Economics, Dr. Eko Nugroho, S.Pt., M.Sc. led the Brawijaya Expedition group to Banyak Island, Aceh Singkil Regency for 14 days. Banyak Island is one of the outermost groups of islands on Indonesia’s border with the Indian Ocean. The group departed on Sunday (8/10/2023) and arrived Monday (09/10/2023) after traveling for 2 days using various modes of land, air and sea transportation.

The Brawijaya expedition group on Banyak Island was attended by 10 students from across faculties at UB. Faculty of Animal Husbandry sent 2 students, namely Ruth Sela Joanne Yunika Tobing and Ossy Tessa Lonika Haloho, both students of the Class of 2020. The Brawijaya Expedition is a community service program initiated byGlobal Academic Engagement (GAE) UB to send students to carry out activitiesoutbound community service to the Frontier, Outermost and Disadvantaged (3T) regions of Indonesia.

The Brawijaya Expedition carried out on Banyak Island offers various activities, including the fields of creative economy, tourism and the environment, as well as education and health. To realize this activity, UB invited a group of students and lecturers from Teuku Umar University (UTU) who at the same time carried out DIKTI matching fund activities.

The arrival of the Brawijaya Expedition team on Banyak Island was warmly welcomed by the community, local community leaders and the ranks of the Banyak Island MUSPIKA. “I really appreciate the extraordinary enthusiasm of friends from UB because they came all the way from Malang to come to Banyak Island to carry out community empowerment, because basically Banyak Island is rarely visited by foreign students because of its remote area,” said Mukhlis as Banyak Island sub-district head. Because geographically Banyak Island is located in the outermost region of Indonesia which borders directly on the Indian Ocean, its people are often constrained by access to education, health, transportation and limited resources. Therefore, the community service carried out by the Brawijaya Expedition Team is important to help improve the welfare of the residents of Banyak Island.[Eko]