Thanks to Balangan Coal's assistance, Hukai Village sasirangan increasingly popular

Tanjung, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The red marker held by Norhaidah (57) moved following the pattern of haruan teeth on thick cardboard stuck to two meters white cloth.

The member of sasirangan craftswomen Karya Bersama, Hukai Village, Juai sub-district, Balangan District, South Kalimantan, wanted to make sasirangan cloth with a fern shoot motif combined with haruan teeth, a typical of Banjar motif.

With the help of a colleague, the initial stages of making sasirangan did not take long to complete.

"We want to highlight fern shoot and Juai pumpkin flower motif to be different from others outside," said Norhaidah

Built in 2021, this sasirangan group remain survive today, thank in part to the assistance and guidance of Balangan Coal Companies, one of Adaro Group's subsidiaries, through village development program.

Through CSR in 2022, Balangan Coal gave a capital injection of IDR40 million for the procurement of material and various sasirangan fabric processing equipment.

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Their common need to increase family's economy and to develop sasirangan business made Hj. Masnun as a group leader could encourage her members to continue learning.

"Our production then succeeded in selling 20 pieces of sasirangan and the group has 20 members," said Hj Masnun.

That year, the demand increased reaching 115 piaces with a price Rp120,000 per sheet for cotton satin and Rp320,000 per sheet for silk satin.

Masnun told that the formation of the Karya Bersama group began with the participation of a number of residents in sasirangan making training held by the village government.

They then agreed to form a group to produce their own sasirangan in 2021 with a group name of Karya Bersama.

At the beginning  it was quite difficult to develop their business, because the cloth they made always unsatisfactory, motif and colors were irregular, their products was not suitable for sale. 

However, they did not give up. They decided to continue business with determination to produce a quality products and worth selling.

The strong will to preserve the culture of Banjar in Hukai Village had made them survived. At least they did it as a side business after tapping rubber in plantation. 

Members got wages for types of work per piece of cloth, from making motif Rp3,000, hand sewing Rp3,000, coloring Rp12,000 and washing/ironing Rp2,000.

The proceed from sale were deposited into the group's treasury as business capital. 

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"Alhamdulillah (Thank God) business opportunities opened up more after Balangan Coal offered us to partake training to make sasirangan in 2022, including capital assistance," she said.

The sasirangan fabric made by Karya Bersama was starting to become wellknown and orders began to flow from habsy group, posyandu cadres, and ASN.

The extraordinary spirit shown by Masnun and her members received appreciation from Nico Seniar, CSR & CR Departement Head of Balangan Coal Companies.

For Nico, this proves that sasirangan business in Hukai Village, which is about 10 kilometers from Paringin, the capital of Balangan District, continues to grow and develop.

Even though in the countryside, their enthusiastic about learning and progressing is not an obstacle for Karya Bersama group, especially in preserving sasirangan.

Balangan Coal then collaborated with the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) to accompany the group and help with product market management.

"Hopefully Balangan Coal's determination to synergize with Karya Bersama with assistance from IPB to grow 'local Hero' in Hukai Village," said Nico.

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