The agreement was discussed during a meeting between IDNG President Herry Utomo and Chairman of the Board of Directors of IDNG Edward Wanandi with Coordinating Minister for Marine Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Head of the National Development Planning Agency Bambang Brodjonegoro in Washington DC, the US, last week.
In a press release received by ANTARA here on Tuesday, Utomo noted that the two programs were efforts by the diaspora to be directly involved in accelerating development in Indonesia, particularly in Papua and West Papua.
This initiative was welcomed by the minister who said it was time for the Indonesian diasporas expertise and mastery in technology to be used for building the country.
The telemedicine program will be centered at the Jayapura hospital and Merauke hospital and will be connected to five district health centers.
Later on, the "real time" program will be implemented at one hundred frontline district health centers to cover more patients.
Meanwhile, the educational programs will be held at high schools with boarding facilities in Jayapura, Merauke, and Nabire to transform them into high-quality graduate-generating institutions.
The program will begin with recruiting additional educators, designing curriculum and teaching materials, training and mentoring, and building learning infrastructure.
At least 20 professors from the Indonesian diaspora will be deployed alternately throughout 2018 to offer mentoring and guidance using the diasporas self-funding worth $350 thousand.
"This is a form of pure donation from the diaspora donors and sponsors, and these diaspora professors are devoted to fulfilling their duties, so they will not receive salaries or honorariums," Utomo said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
