YPAC Drives More Productivity for People with Disabilities through Entrepreneurship Training
Tokopedia and YPAC help people with disabilities to start their own businesses.
International Disability Day which falls on December 3rd is an appropriate time to reflect on the current conditions of people with disabilities. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2017, there are 21 million people with disabilities of productive age in Indonesia. Most of them didn’t have as much opportunities as they could have to know and hone their own skills.
Recognizing these problems, Tokopedia collaborated with the National Disabled Child Development Foundation (YPAC) to organized an entrepreneurial training session for people with disability. This training is supported by excellence.asia and aims to provide business skills to create more business opportunities for people with disabilities.
Having Disability in Productive Age
18 people with disabilities on productive age (18–35 years old) attended the training and broke into different groups. There were people with physical disabilities such as people in the wheelchair, who are deaf, or malnourished. These people were trained by 30 entrepreneurial experts and they learnt how to to start their own business. Since the first training on July, they were taught to first acknowledge and get to know their own selves.
They were also taught the basic knowledge about business- such as decision making and how to do marketing the right way. The training also aimed to introduce them about all the potentials that are available for people with disabilities to start their business by interacting with people who hold important positions in their companies.
On last Thursday, November 28th, the training participants presented their business plans to YPAC, Tokopedia, and representatives from other companies. They also showcased their skills after the training. Siti Fauziah, as Tokopedia’s representative, expressed her admiration for people with disabilities who attended the training.
‘’We are very happy to see that the participants are very enthusiastic and that they learnt a lot from the training given. Some of the business ideas being presented have also included e-commerce as one of the marketing strategies that they will use. We hope that, after this training, they can actually start their own business.’’
Meanwhile, Muhammad Ariek Dimas Santoso, member of the best group in the training said that the training from YPAC is helpful for him to plan his business carefully.
“Through this training, I became more aware of how to maximize the ‘dodol’ business that I have been developing. I have also become more confident to start my own business thanks to the motivation from all the speakers.’’
Ariek and his team members were chosen to be the best group because they made their own dodol business- both made from either pidada or mangrove fruits. They got this idea after seeing dodol pidada made by the housewives in Bekasi area, which many people are not familiar with yet. After attending the training, Ariek started the business of dodol from pidada fruit which named ‘Funtastix Mangrove’.
Increasing awareness of the Importance of Sustainable Training
This training was initially initiated by YPAC National because of the lack of skills training for people with disabilities. They then setted up IT training centers in Jakarta and Bandung, especially to increase the potential of people with disabilities to be productive and independent.
Based on YPAC’s observations, both the government and private companies have provided employment conditions that don’t favor people with disabilities. This automatically creates a barrier for the opportunity for people with disabilities to show their potential.
Through this training, YPAC wants the company to see the potential possessed by people with disabilities, as well as foster the enthusiasm to build their own businesses. In the future, Tokopedia hopes that there will be more specialized training by other parties to increase the potential of people with disabilities.
