Unpad Alumni Small-Business Community Employ “Gerebek Warung” in Bandung City 

Bandung, West Java — The COVID-19 pandemic is a global phenomenon that not only killed a large number of people, but also caused several occupations and businesses to go bankrupt. As a result, this brought losses to many workers.

In response to this, workers from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) who are part of UMKM Alumni Universitas Padjadjaran community, held a “Gerebek Warung” activity in Bandung City last Saturday (8/14). This was initiated with the aim of helping to recover and improve the economy of small businesses workers who have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

With this opportunity, UMKM Alumni Unpad targeted eleven small stalls “warung” around Bandung City with turnovers of Rp200,000 or less per day. Andri Ganamurti, the coordinator of Gerebek Waung UMKM Alumni Unpad, expresses the efforts that has been done, namely by providing business capital in the form of assistance in selling products and guidance in product marketing.

“So, for every warung, we provide additional capital in the form of the products they sell. We also make banners for their products so people recognize them. During Gerebek Warung, we also distribute rice boxes to residents around the stalls with the conditions that they have to buy a product in the warung,” Andri states.

Andri also gives an example of the marketing efforts made, which is by giving rice boxes to every resident who buys coffee at the coffee warung.

In addition to the aim of helping restore and increase the income of many small warung, Gerebek Warung also has a vision to change the image of MSMEs as always assumed to be only “waiting for assistance” into ones that provide assistance to members and residents around their warung.

Unpad Alumni UMKM was formed in 2020 and has a legal entity called Perkumpulan Bumi Alumni (PBA), a cooperative named Koperasi UMKM Alumni (Kuali), and a cafe outlet known as Kafe Lupba in BTC Mall Bandung.

Assistance and empowerment aimed at helping to improve MSMEs is a wise step in the effort to eradicate poverty. On the other hand, this activity is also a form of achieving the principle of justice for all Indonesian people.

Writer: Maria Imanuella Dewi Sekartaji
Translator: Jauza Maryam Mumtazah