Siti Aisyah, A Brave Woman from Buntet

This time I am telling you about a woman with two children who is studying at ISIF. At a glance, if you met her you will think that she was shy woman. But you will missguided cause she is brave woman.

It’s been acknowledge by many pople in Cirebon, there are university who offer a graduate certificate without learning activity. People only have to pay the diploma degree certicifate around 7 – 10 millions rupiah. There are people who get their diploma using those kind of process, especially when they feel stuck writing their thesis. Aisyah also got those kind of information from her friends. Many people around tempte her to buy a diploma certificate. But she survive by completing her thesis. Yes It's not easy, because writing especially for research is not that easy for her.

"I will not give up. I've been struggling to go to campus from my home in Buntet for almost four years" , she said. Aisyah sometimes has to carry her younger child to campus which is 15 km away from her house.

However It is not her struggle to complete her study that should be plaudit, but what that makes us to be more proud is her concern for the people in her village. Siti Aisyah who now teaches at the madrasah (Islamic education) in this village try to understand them and discuss with them to find out basic issue they adress. She has invited Bayt Al-Hikmah, one of local NGO who concern on reproductive right in religious life to socialized this issue in one of that discussion forum. The results is amazing, people are very enthusiastic because they never got those kind of information even from the midwife. She did also organize people to establish a cooperative, a micro finance activity in her village.

"This course has helped me become the person who dared to speak in front of many people. At first they did not look at me as some body at all. Now they are beginning to acknowledge that education is very important by looking at me" she said.

Aisyah is currently being agitated with a pile of garbage in the river. She raised this issue to the village staff, but they did not take it seriously. Today she is trying to obtain the views of me, about how to start building a mutual aid waste management in the village.

Aisyah has been transformed to be a leader. Really, I should be proud, imagine if all students had the awareness and do things that Aisyah did. Indonesia will be more advanced because of that.