Social economic survey in rural areas in Garut Regency for empowerment program priority

Abstract

Mekar Sari Village, Selaawi District, Garut Regency is a village known as the largest bird nest producer in West Java. It is in this village that bird nest supplies for big cities like Bandung and Jakarta come from. With the industry growing rapidly, it turns out that to date, it has not had a major impact on the development of the village itself. Based on this, the Parahyangan Catholic University Community Service Program (P3M) conducted a survey and data search on the root of the problems that occurred in this village. In this study, the data came from one of the hamlets in the village of Mekar Sari, which is from sub-village 3. From the data processing, the main problem conditions found in sub-village 3 of Mekar Sari Village were education, health and economic issues. From the survey, data was obtained that there were still many educational, health and economic problems that had to be resolved to improve the development of this village. In the program this time, students of P3M participants were deployed to analyze problems, propose personal projects and hamlet projects and carry out to be able to contribute to solving the existing problems. This paper discusses how the survey is used for prioritizing programs conducted in this area. The paper also provides a narrative analysis how community empowerment programs encourage students to think beyond the theories and to apply knowledge in the community service.