Alumnus Story: Darsana and His Mission to Share Information about Health

19 February 2021

“In vain you acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others.” – Deuteronomy Rabbah.

After finishing his bachelor’s degree in the public health field, Darsana is following his passion to serve the community. He works in the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP), one of YKIP partners located in Ban village, Karangasem. Besides his project in EBPP, Darsana spends his time developing several programs.

“I think the knowledge that I got from the university should be applied to help people,” Darsana explains the reason behind his activities. Currently, Darsana is actively sharing his knowledge of MEDIK (Media Edukasi dan Informasi Kesehatan), a platform he uses for his projects in the health education and information media.

There are three MEDIK activities initiated by Darsana: “Catatan Kesehatan Sepekan”, “Kak Mentoring Dong” and a program in cooperation with Yayasan Seratus Hari Pertama to prevent children from stunting in Karangasem Regency-East Bali. “Catatan Kesehatan Sepekan” (Weekly Health Recap) is health information in infographics form. Darsana curated important health news or events in a week and summarized them in a single infographic.

“Health news is as important as our health. By having this infographic, I hope we can share health information and educate people to be more aware of their health and become healthier. Healthier people will create a healthier community.” Darsana explains about this program.

Another program he started is “Kak Mentoring Dong” (Mentor Me, Please). As its name says, it is a mentoring program that helps public health students to get the best out of their studies, with support from the mentors. It is a voluntary-basis activity where the mentors volunteer their time to support the mentees for a semester. Now, this activity is on their fourth batch. The mentors and mentees come from all over Indonesia. The goal of this mentoring program is to help students in facing their problems during the study and to broaden the network.

Darsana hopes that by having the help in their studies, students will have more opportunities to be involved in the community, capable to find the solution to problems, and share their public health knowledge in society. Darsana also hopes that the program can be adopted by universities so that they can have their own mentoring program.

Besides using his time for MEDIK activities, Darsana also has a new initiative called “Tak Ada Limbah Masker di Kotaku” (zero face masks waste in my town). Targeting to reduce face mask waste in public places, this program engages volunteers to clean up the town from face mask waste. Volunteers who spotted facemask waste in public places will take the waste to the proper bin. The first batch of this inspirational program was pioneered successfully in December 2020, and he will continue the program in 2021 hand in hand with the volunteers.

When he was asked about the scholarship from YKIP, Darsana beamingly commented: “YKIP and Inspirasia Foundation was the bridge between me and my dreams. Before I got the scholarship, I never dreamed of continuing my study to the university level, but when I got the chance, I did my best. Thank you, YKIP and Inspirasia Foundation. You have helped me to reach my dream.”

YKIP is proud to be a part of Darsana’s success journey. We are truly happy for him and we are genuinely optimistic that he is able to continue his brilliant programs in the future and be the source of light for other people’s candles. Good luck, Darsana!