REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Many Islamic boarding schools or pesantrens, run some business projects aim at empowering their students. The types of the project vary from trading to farming. Some pesantrens are even successful to pour more money, thanks to those projects.

“At this time, we have 32 unit projects handled by 250 students,” the Head of Gontor Modern Pesantren, KH Abdullah Syukri Zarkasyi, said.

The projects range from photocopy, ice making, to other creative economic activities. In a year, the profit from 32 unit projects is up to 7-8 billion IDR. Syukri said, the self reliant programs record some improvement and fast progress, even without funding from the government. Syukri plans expand the programs and teach his 4,800 students the importance of self reliance.

Agribusiness in Gontor records one year profit to 1.2 billion IDR. The project runs in 250 hectares area.  

Another success story comes from PPPA Daarul, a pesantren specializes in memorizing Quran or tahfiz pesantren. The Executive Director of PPPA Daarul Quran, Tarmizi, explained, the organization was developing ‘Export or Productive Pesantren Economy’ program. The program aims at encouraging self reliance manner in pesantrens alike in Indonesia. About 100 tahfiz pesantrens apply the export program.

The form of empowerment is financial support and educating the human resources. The export successfully revives tahfiz houses through various projects. “We have fish, goat, and cattle breeding, restaurant, and printing,” he said.

Tarmizi added, the project started in 2009. In 2012, Tarmizi set the target of 500 tahfiz houses to run export program. To achieve the goal, at least they need 2 billion IDR.

The Ash-Shiddiqiyah Pesanten led by KH Noer Muhammad SQ also maintains some business projects. The process starts in Kedoya, Jakarta, and now Noer has 11 units. “It spreads in West Java, Palembang, Lampung, Banten, and Jakarta,” he said.

Noer said, initially the projects developed in the pesantren are carried out to fund pesantren’s activities. The pilot project in this pesantren is small range cooperative, and then it develops into breeding, farming, minimarkets, and restaurants. Today, Ash-Shiddiqiyah has seven minimarkets and seven restaurants.

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