On May 18-21, 2018, 42 students and two professors from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Singapore Management University (SMU) visited companies of the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) Group in Pangkalan Kerinci, Pelalawan District, Riau.

This visit is one of a series of activities of the Global Modular Courses, a program of cooperation between The Wharton School and Tanoto Foundation which has been going on since 2013. The Global Modular Courses aims to provide real experiences for students in understanding business opportunities and sustainability practices directly from the field.

Every year, The Wharton School students visit Indonesia and other ASEAN countries to learn firsthand about business opportunities and challenges being faced. Among other things, the participants learn about sustainability practices that have been applied by companies of the RGE Group in Riau.

Participants could see firsthand the sustainability practices in the paper industry starting from plant tissue culture researches at the RGE Technology Center and development of the acacia seeds in the Kerinci Central Nursery. After that, the participants also saw the paper making process at the factory of PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) to produce PaperOne paper products ready for distribution to more than 85 countries.

Both the students and the accompanying professors were enthusiastic in attending each visit, including Professor Janice Bellace of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who actively put forward questions at every location of the visit.

Participants were also invited to learn how Asian Agri company manages oil palm plantations and processes fresh fruit bunches into oil. An interesting point is the use of natural predators, namely the owls, to cope with oil palm pests.

In addition to industry visits, they also learned how to make batik at Rumah Batik Andalan, a fostered partner of RAPP’s Community Development Program. This batik house has produced a number of batik motifs typical of Riau such as batik Bono, which is inspired by the Bono waves in Kampar River, Riau.

The next activity was a visit to Kuala Terusan Village, Pangkalan Kerinci Sub-district, Pelalawan, Riau to get to know how the local people live around RAPP’s operational areas. In this visit, the participants handed over posyandu supporting equipment to the Village Head of Kuala Terusan, Abi Hurairah.

Aside from the Global Modular Course, another collaborative activity between Tanoto Foundation and The Wharton School is the Global Faculty Development Program. This activity involves the assigning of lecturers of Universitas Indonesia and Universitas Gadjah Mada to study with the professors of The Wharton School on how to undertake researches that can be published in major international journals.

Promise. This is the word that sums up Project Sukacita for me. The team has done a great deal, but we can do so much more. The best thing is, we can do more.

This is the first Project Sukacita trip for me, but it has been a real eye opener. It was amazing seeing how the whole team, regardless of school or nationality, working together for one singular purpose.

Everyone out in their best for this project – SMU students translating with nary a word of complaint, NUS students tirelessly putting their medical knowledge to practice for the villagers. It would be a joy to see future batches of students forming closer bonds between the two schools and working as one singular project Sukacita.

This is the first Sukacita trip for me, but it has been a real eye opener. It was amazing seeing how the whole team, regardless of school or nationality, working together for one singular purpose. Everyone out in their best for this project – SMU students translating with nary a word of complaint, NUS students tirelessly putting their medical knowledge to practice for the villagers.

It would be a joy to see future batches of students forming closer bonds between the two schools and working as one singular project Sukacita.

I have seen firsthand the effort that the students put in, for the health and well-being of the villagers. My small team and I helped to create a medical examination work plan. And when we hit the snag of needing translations and other ways to adapt our book knowledge to practice in the village, the SMU students were always at the ready.

It was not easy to produce a serviceable screening workflow from scratch, but the excellent team made it work despite the odds being stacked against us. It helped too, that many of the students took with them their experience serving in other projects, helping to give Sukacita a head start when it is sorely needed.

I have also seen the foresight and vision of the team. As the old adage goes, we hope Sukacita was not only providing fish for the villagers, but we were able to teach the villagers to fish. We wanted Sukacita to become a sustainable medical project in the future, leaving the place better than when we found it.

And so it was especially heartening for me to find out that our students were actively working on using research methods to determine the best possible future direction for the project. From meticulously crafted questionnaires to large group brainstorming sessions, there were multiple avenues for us to tap our minds to come up with a future plan. It is my hope that we can eventually build Sukacita up to become a mature project, helping the villagers in a long term, sustainable manner.

To make any project a success, there has to be dedicated people with the resources to carry out their vision. And nowhere else have I seen the conviction the Tanoto Foundation has for this project. Even before we have come up with concrete plans, even before we have come up with tangible results, the Tanoto Foundation has always been behind this project and its students.

I have absolute confidence that with the continued support, the students will do their very best and endeavor to make the most out of this opportunity to help others.

All in all, I am confident that project Sukacita is just in its fledgling phase, but it will definitely grow to become an important project for the health and wellbeing of villagers. In its first iteration as a medical project, Sukacita has already shown burgeoning promise and there will surely be great things to follow.

I am grateful to have been a part of it and will be grateful all the same for future opportunities granted to me to help out. I sincerely wish project Sukacita all the best in the future and hope to see great things come of it.

Written by Adriel Seah, NUS Year 4 Medical Student.

Living in a big city and attending higher education is a blessing to students at Singapore Management University and National University of Singapore. Yet they do not forget to share their joy with the less fortunate people living in the rural areas.

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On 1- 14 May 2018 they ran the Project Sukacita (Project of Joy), an annual event that has been going on since 2012. The event was spearheaded by Tanoto Foundation’s scholarship recipients at SMU through community service activity in the rural areas in Riau Province.

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A total of 42 SMU and NUS students were seen to be enthusiastically participating in the activity. They visited the Child Care Center (TPA) in Desa Rantau Baru, Riau. They were seen playing and guiding the children to learn together.

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In one session, they also taught how to wash hands and brush teeth in an effort on learning about clean healthy life starting from early age. The participants also took turns to provide counseling on nutrition for the development of early age children.

During their visit to SMA (Senior High School) Mutiara Harapan, they shared their experiences and motivations in learning. At SD (Elementary School) Permata Rantau Baru, the SMU and NUS students donated books to the school and undertook tree planting activity with the students.

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Peak of the Project Sukacita event was marked by health examination activity for the children and parents involving five TPAs and one Kindergarden in Desa Rantau Baru, Riau. They set up three consultation desks, each attended by one NUS medical student and two doctors from the local community health center, as well as one doctor and two nurses from a local clinic.

This peak activity aimed to examine the health and hygiene statuses of the children. Meanwhile the parents received medical examinations for blood sugar, uric acid, and cholesterol.

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Nothing is more valuable in this life than bringing benefits to others. That is the motivation of SMU and NUS students in carrying out this activity. See you in Project Sukacita next year!