FOCUS Recap: a Fun Camp but We Forgot the Tent

       FOCUS is an annual event organized by the International Forestry Students’ Association Local Committee Universitas Hasanuddin where we hope to grow solidarity while trying to understand the importance of forest conservation and sustainable natural resource management. FOCUS provides a platform for members of IFSA LC UNHAS to share knowledge regarding forestry issues, experiences, and innovations in the field of forestry. By participating in this event, participants are expected to develop leadership skills, build internal networks, and inspire one another to actively engage in environmental conservation.

Picture by Elmita Ayusyifa

Our initial background of bringing FOCUS to the table.

       Aiming the internal bonding, FOCUS was also a project that was made to answer the capacity of members’ issues that have been pointed out by one of our members during the General Assembly session. When this camp is categorized as an informal event, we still include the discussion session where the fellow IFSA members could share their interpretation of a theme given by the Research and Community Development Sub-Commission. This to address the member’s need as a forester to stay updated of current forestry issues and grow their capacity of fixing their logical framework through discussion.

Picture by Raqiah Aqilah Mukarram

First event might not be perfect, but at least that is when we started: the long-awaited event begins.

       The IFSA internal situation was still adjusting for the past few terms as we just established the local committee in our university. Since the first term, our yearly agenda that has been maintained was IFSA Goes to Teaching. With this current term, we try to expand a regular project within external and internal. And FOCUS is one of the internal events that we aim to hold regularly in order to grow members’ capacity and strengthen their bonds.

From left to right and front: Pak Jamal, Aqilah, Arsyla, Elmita, Khaykal, Hafidz.

Picture by Rasya

We spent the night under the less-polluted sky. The unexpected happened, but we still had fun.

       FOCUS actually stands for Forest Camp: Unfolds Speculations and by that means, the event is supposed to be focused on camping events. However, the implementation sometimes doesn’t run exactly like how it was planned.

       Here is how it actually went: we divided our logistics in the morning and will be reunited back in the afternoon near the campsite we already booked, Tanakaraeng. This is where the unexpected occurs. Some of the members that were supposed to come canceled at the last minute for reasons and the main tools that became the highlight of the event was brought by one of these members. The OC was already at the site when the information arrived and we try to resolve this by transferring the tent into the other member who catches up by the night. At the time the tent arrived, the food was already set.

       Late was better than never. At least we had a photo of the tent as a documentation and we slept under the bright red and blue tents.

In frame from right to left: Khaykal, Arsyla, Aqilah, Pak Jamal, Bu Andarisna, Dadan, Elmita.

Picture by Hafidz Assidiqie

Our tiny little agendas.

The participants spent their Saturday Night from 24-25 August 2024 in Bissoloro, Gowa. 

       As for the first project of our Capacity Building Sub-Commission, we only invite our IFSA members as the participants. But the journey of FOCUS just begins. And we never know where the future might bring us. Who knows that we are going to hold our camp open to all the students of Forestry Faculty later in the future?

       Indeed our plan sometimes turns into another thing we didn’t know would ever happen. We waited for our Research and Community Development Sub-Commission members to arrive, however we ended up sharing stories with the Chief of Resort Ko’mara that lies under the Balai Besar Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam, Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The world proves how small they actually are. It might be an informal meet, we introduced ourselves to the chief who is actually the owner of the place we held the camp, and that is how our conversation turned into a sharing session while unraveling the ties of relatedness where one of the IFSA members was the same alma mater with the chief and the other was the person the chief contacted asking the scholarship information.  In such a weird way, we somehow reach the goal to understand how our government carries out their programs to conserve the area that belongs to its duty.

In frame from right to left: Arsyla, Elmita, Aqilah, Khaykal, Pak Jamal, Bu Andarisna.

Picture by Hafidz Assidiqie

       We also visited one of our lecturer’s house during the morning outbond. We walked around the site and visited some local tourist attraction called Bukit Tinambung as our site was nearby the place. We also paid a visit to one of our member’s acquaintances who made a traditional palm sugar.

In frame from left to right: Prof. Dr. Ir. Amran Achmad, M.Sc., Khaykal, Elmita, Hafidz, Arsyla.

Picture by Raqiah Aqilah Mukarram

This camp might not be as perfect according to the schedule that we already arranged. But, going on the flow was not a bad choice when things escalated out of the prediction at all.

 

Written by: Elmita Ayusyifa – Head of Publication Sub-Commission Term 2024/2025

Documentation by: FOCUS Organizing Committee (Arsyla, Hafidz, Aqilah, Elmita)


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