Wadah Foundation’s vision is to realise an empowered and dignified society; its mission is to holistically empower individuals and communities through education, health and economic empowerment. Wadah Foundation is committed to empowering communities through human resource development, where every person has the opportunity to thrive. To achieve this mission, Wadah has designed several key strategies: recognising and developing various potentials, establishing partnerships for cooperation with other parties, and conducting continuous mentoring.

*The visit to Hasanuddin University was in the context of cooperation to produce superior human resources through education, health, and community empowerment

Human Resources Development Strategy

Started in 2022, Wadah Foundation embarked on an initiative to develop competent human resources. The target is to produce trained, skilled and trusted individuals in their respective fields. Through 2022 – Wadah National Work, all employees were invited to reflect on their role in realising the Foundation’s vision and synchronising it with their vision in social service. This human resource development programme aims to increase the capacity of employees, especially in the areas of management and mentoring, so that they can play an active role in realising Wadah’s vision and personal vision in their lives. In 2023, the board set a new target towards Wadah Excellent, which is to create mobilisers in the community. To achieve this goal, the Wadah Universal Education Initiative was chosen as the main platform for programme implementation, with continued personal development programmes. Wadah Excellent is defined as Wadah being a professionally managed and credible social institution, with a focus on human resource development. Its main goal is to produce agents of change who are able to empower the community.

*Sustainable organisation training & village training in Sangiran, Central Java

Wadah Excellent

Various methods will be applied to achieve Wadah Excellent’s vision, such as mentoring, training, and increasing posture and exposure. This process starts from developing the role of cadres into community mobilisers, until they can finally become agents of change.

The Agents  of Change are individuals who have the ability and willingness to encourage positive change in their environment. They not only have certain skills, but also have an open, creative, and inspiring attitude through example. They act as catalysts, leaders, and motivators in bringing society (community) to progress. While in the professional scope, a change agent is an employee who has a serving spirit, high work ethic, works professionally and can achieve the set performance targets, thus encouraging the realisation of the Wadah Foundation’s predetermined performance targets.

Collaboration to Optimise Services

Wadah Foundation has a new policy for 2025. This policy invites and encourages employees who previously worked as field staff and have gained management and mentoring knowledge and skills, to work in the community as partners to expand Wadah’s services nationally. The aim is to support each person’s independence and give them more space to work towards an empowered and dignified society with emotional support, facilities, and opportunities. Hopefully, this policy can create more agents of change who can empower the community.

As one of the strategies to support this policy, Wadah will collaborate with various parties to improve the quality of services. The programmes will be more structured and managed through the Wadah Universal Education Initiative platform. Activities will include relevant skills training, the utilization of technology to broaden access to quality education and training and apprenticeship programmes to help increase employment opportunities for Wadah community members. In the health sector, training activities will be continued.  In collaboration with the National Nutrition Board, Wadah supports the operatios of nutrition kitchen  in Wadah’s communities. This program’s objective to raise awareness of healthy lifestyles, and mental health, starting from the family level, and to ensure adequate access to healthcare in the community. In the area of Economic Empowerment, cooperation with Wadah Cooperative will be optimised to provide support in the form of access to affordable loans for education, micro business and basic needs. This programme can bridge the economic gap and provide opportunities for communities to become financially independent and prosper.

*University of Indonesia (UI) student internship

Regular Monitoring and Evaluation to Achieve Goals

To ensure the success of this strategy, it is important to have a clear implementation plan and monitoring mechanism through data analytics, visits and approaches created with a family spirit and community involvement.  We hopefully obtain constructive feedback from the evaluations for improvements, changes, and joint program innovations. With this strategy, Wadah Foundation aims to produce excellent, resilient and independent human resources to face future challenges with adequate skills and knowledge. Optimizing the presence of partners in the community will create an ecosystem that supports sustainable and inclusive empowerment. By implementing these innovative strategies, we can significantly improve the welfare of the community through active participation of various parties, transparency, and accountability in every stage of implementation to achieve ‘Wadah Excellent’.

Author: Paula Stela Nova Landowero