Malang, (malangkota.go.id) – Kauman Village in collaboration with the Cooperatives, Industry and Trade Service (Diskopindag) held an activity entitled Sinau mBatik Bareng, Saturday (26/3/2022). This activity is a community empowerment activity, especially in the art of batik crafts.

Head of Diskopindag of Malang City, Muhamad Sailendra, ST., MM strongly supports the activity that originated from the community's idea. Sailendra said, this activity is an educational event that batik is a work of Indonesian culture, especially in Kampung Kajoetangan Heritage as one of the creative products of the community. In addition, this activity can also unite the community.
"Through this activity, it can also stimulate economic activities in Kajoetangan Heritage. The hope is that Kajoetangan Heritage is not just a good physical building, but also its people are empowered and can improve their human resource capabilities. So that they can improve their welfare," he continued.
Furthermore, Sailendra said that with the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) which increasingly allows for more frequent economic activities with more freedom. His party will fully support all activities in improving the community's economy.
"We will facilitate many trainings for the community, including improving their abilities through facilitating the legality of business permits. We also have a Business Clinic to facilitate the community for business consultations. In the Business Clinic, all matters of business, financial problems, marketing, how to produce, we convey to them," he said.
The bespectacled man stated that this activity is an effort to improve micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), because it is not only a batik activity. But also in this moment, various traditional and distinctive culinary delights are also presented, such as Ontbijtkoek and music that adds to the excitement of the event held around the Mbah Honggo Tomb site. According to him, each has the potential to be developed, including if it is to be held in other areas.
"We only facilitate and encourage them to be creative like this. Hopefully, this (idea) comes from the community itself. Like here, it comes from the community itself, and we support it," he said.
Meanwhile, Kauman Village Head, Agus Sartono hopes to hone his residents' skills in batik. Previously, 10 of his residents had been given training by Diskopindag.
"In the context of the community empowerment program. We initiated to the residents, that not only knowledge is understood but also skills. This is just the beginning so that the skills of residents in the Kauman area, especially in Kajoetangan Heritage. There are many skills in them actually, one of which is batik," he said.
His party also plans to hold activities like this regularly for the wider community by collaborating with Pokdarwis. The hope is that in the future, it is possible that visitors to Kajoetangan Heritage can also learn batik while exploring this village.
In this activity, around 40 women representatives from each RW in Kauman Village enthusiastically learned batik starting from making patterns on cloth, nglowong (attaching malam/wax according to the pattern), coloring, and others. (ari/ram)