Never say you cannot (do something). Be a champion in our own country.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini invited hundreds of college students participating in the Public Lecture of National Student Conference (KMN) III to optimize their own potential to expedite social development.

“It means that all of us have extraordinary potentials. Never say you cannot (do something). Be a champion in our own country," the minister said, as quoted from a statement on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the public lecture was held at the Public Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, South Tangerang City, Banten Province.

Furthermore, the minister called on college students, as the agents of change, to have the skills to accelerate community empowerment, so that the development of Indonesian people could level up to that of other countries.

To this end, the students can be actively involved in tackling poverty and social problems in society by helping the Social Affairs Ministry in verifying the data of social assistance beneficiaries, she elaborated.

The ministry had conducted such collaboration in 2021 through the Young Warriors Program.

"Including PENA (Nusantara Economic Heroes) – it is also one of (the ministry’s) community empowerment programs. They (college students) can also make recommendations (on the implementation of the program),” Rismaharini stated.

The minister noted that her ranks are not only assigned to distribute social aid to the community but also to eradicate poverty in a sustainable manner.

"Thus, I pay much attention on how to empower impoverished people," she remarked.

According to the Social Affairs Ministry's data, beneficiaries of the PENA program, which is expected to help poor and vulnerable families to improve their economic independence, reached 4,766 families across Indonesia.

To improve the beneficiary data, the ministry regularly updates the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) to make it more credible and accountable.

The Social Affairs Ministry has also created the "Proposal and Disproving" menu at the DTKS website.

The menu allows the public to create new data to propose anyone considered eligible to become a beneficiary as well as to erase existing data if it does not match the real condition of the beneficiary.

In addition, the ministry has a Command Center contact on 171 as an integrated service to handle any complaints from the public and reach out to the people in need.

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Translator: Devi Ramadhan, Uyu Liman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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