Rector of Universitas Muhamamdiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P. officially announced Bawak Nao Center a tourism information center and Rumah Baca Sajang (a library) on Jl. Pariwisata, Bawak Nao, Sajang, Sembalun, Lombok Timur on Tuesday (5/9). Bawak Nao Center was initiated by students of UMY associated in Genesia team performing community service in Lombok Timur.

Gunawan expressed his gratitude to Sembalun people, particularly Bawak Nao People for welcoming and teaching UMY students. “I thank all people for teaching UMY students how to live in a community. We expect that students are able to not only learn at class but also engage in community,” he stated.

Gunawan maintained that having interaction with community is not east so that students are challenged. “I believe that the students will learn to be mature during the community service since they have to collaborate with community in many aspects such as confronting issues and sharing ideas. This shows that students are there for this nation,” he declared.

Meanwhile, district head of Sembalun Usman said that the cooperation of UMY benefits the people, particularly the tourism.

“Sembalun is a 3T (frontier, outermost and remote) area, but tourism places in Sembalun are well known nationally and intentionally. Thus, I expected that students performing the next performing the next community service can evolve another tourism such as local wisdom and culture in Sembalun,” wished Usman.

Besides, chief of the Genesia team Rahmat Ghifar Djulihardy informed that the Bawak Nao Center is a program of Tourism Division collaborating with Creative Economy Division, while the Rumah Baca Sajang is a program of Educational Division. “The official parting ceremony was led by regent of Lombok Timur on 20 July 2014. The Genesia team performed the community service for two months and accomplished several programs in fields of tourism, education, creative economy, health, and agriculture,” he mentioned.

Rahmat believed that the Rumah Baca Sajang will contribute to the tourism development in Sembalun. “Indeed, Sembalun children can broaden their knowledge outside class so that the quality of human resources can be escalated and later will accelerate the tourism development in Sembalun,” he ended.