FX Syuralpha
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
Keep this story going! Share below!
Kito Rato is a coffee shop run by Kita Setara Foundation based on solopreneurship. It’s a study case of implementing Good Corporate Governance, that company policies can take part in the society by nurturing the disables to become independent and encourage them to become an entrepreneur. The target is young adult disabled who tend to have a lack of competencies, both pieces of knowledge and skills. The challenges are that most, proper education is a rare thing to achieve for the disabled, yet the opportunity to get an education is less than the commoners. For that reason, many of them got rejected in work life because of not only the limitation of their body function but the thought of them are less educated and less experienced. Through Kito Rato, the disabled are given the opportunity to study business, equipped them with the necessary skills and competencies, also gain some experience. Adding value to its product, Kita Setara creates another supporting programs to its core and also providing facilities such as classrooms and libraries.
Kita Setara as a model for Indonesia’s Disability Business Education is a form of concern from the founder Agus Nadi. He noticed that empowerment for the disabled need extra force because the prosperity of the disabled is not met yet. The majority of disabled people in Indonesia are still living dependently, and many are still living in poverty because of their disability, this includes the lack of opportunity for proper education and work vacancy.
He then developed a community hub called Kita Setara (kitasetara.co.id), holding a vision for the disabled to be able to pursue the same goals as in equal opportunity and to be independent. There are three types of disabled, which are quadriplegic, deaf, and blind.
The first action that the Founder of Kita Setara had done was turning one of his places into a learning and business center called Rumah Kehidupan Kita Setara, where Agus Nadi made a specific curriculum for those three disability types. Each of the curricula was made to build confidence and competencies, also develop skills for the students. He had done the education by himself every Saturday and Monday, and in his free time while working in the private sector. He introduces the activities as Kita Setara Business Campus.
As a sociopreuner, he wants to upgrade the business skills and competencies through the curriculum of business model, marketing and sales, basic research and development, and pricing. In the future, Agus Nadi wishes that the students could increase their well-being, either become an entrepreneur or have the equal opportunity to compete with the normal employment seeker and gain an equal opportunity to become an employee.
According to the national statistics, Indonesia is projected to gain bonus demography, where the population of productive age will reach its unprecedented peak by 2020-2035. In order to ensure that this bonus demography is adequately prepared to support Advanced Indonesia 2030, it is imperative to empower the young generation to allow more future leaders that can support and contribute to the nation in face of global challenges. Nevertheless, the implementation of proper education and facilities is still a major constraint to achieve significant progress. Kita Setara presents the vision of reducing the education disparities by providing good quality education that can be accessed equally by the disabled.
Indonesia has 25 million disabled people living in poverty. The poverty standard from World Bank is where a person is not capable to consume 1,90 $ (USD) per day to live. In that case, there is someone who is not only having body limitation but they also have the uncertainty whether they can have a meal in a day or not. Agus Nadi aims in the future, that the disabled could provide themselves independently either by having a job or become an entrepreneur and become a successful businessman.
The first batch he taught was 28 people with disabilities. Until this day, there are a couple of companies and organizations who have gained interest to adopt Kita Setara as their CSR Program or to contribute to the community hub. The founder made sure that every collaboration is based on his integrity as a founder to bring Kita Setara a step closer to its goals.
Disabled people tend to go study at special needs school, where they are not prepared to compete with common people. A normal day to a commoner is a different day full of challenges to the disabled. When it’s not easy to get a job to a commoner, it could be 10 times harder for disabled people. This condition automatically creates a big economic gap for the disabled.
Kita Setara works hard that the disabled could provide themselves through entrepreneurship. Therefore, Agus Nadi came to the idea to create Kito Rato. Kito Rato is a coffee shop that is run by the disabled. He wants his students to be able to create good quality products, so people want to buy the product because of its quality, not based on pity because of their disabilities. Big heart, passion, and social purposes are what have driven Agus Nadi to come this far and to pass the same passion to his students.
Therefore, Kito Rato coffee is a final product from Kita Setara Business Campus. Previously they already had 5 franchises, started by one of his quadriplegic pupils who finished his study at Kita Setara Business Campus. Because of the pandemic, they now have 2 franchises, one in Granada, BSD, and another one in Ciater, the same location as the Kita Setara Business Campus.
The same spirit brought big companies such as Bank Permata and Astra International to contribute as a donator to support Kita Setara to be able to run its programs. Not only providing education, but the foundation also has another social project to give prosthetic legs and to provide a computer that can be used by the blind and visually impaired people.
Kita Setara has given positive contribution and progress, as listed below:
1. Average of 30 disable students come weekly to study business
2. Lunch included in each class
3. Sharing 400 packages of foods during the pandemic
4. Conduct webinar business classes for Bali, Kalimantan, and Sumatera
5. Each class attended by 60 disabled students per session (during the pandemic, Agus Nadi giving away credits for each student so that they can attend the class)
6. Giving away college scholarship for blind students to study at UNJ as a Bachelor of Education and deaf students to study at Universitas Pamulang as an IT Programmer Bachelor
7. Students who already finished their Highschool for special needs and can not afford college, will be given an education at Kita Setara Business Campus to become entrepreneurs.
8. Total of 300 disabled has joined the business classes to gain skills, competencies, and knowledge as entrepreneurship at Kita Setara Bussines Campus.
From the ups and downs of Kita Setara, they were able to help 20 people of vision-impaired or blind to have a job as telemarketers at Permata Bank. And 8 persons among them, after a year manage to achieve the company's target. As a compliment, Bank Permata gave them permanent employee status and holiday to Japan. When the disabled employees asked why they wanted to go overseas even when they will not be able to see., they said they can feel the cold of the snow, and also they can show other people that even though they have limitations, they can achieve what anybody else can. It's an achievement that they are proud of.
Agus Nadi through Kita Setara wants to pass on the spirit and passion of the solopreneurship to the students. He wants them to feel confident because they are skillful. All of these are built based on the vision to create the equality of social economy for the disabled so that they can get out of poverty and become independent on their own.
During this time Kita Setara Business Campus is able to form disable students who are capable to make a business plan, controlling their own financial statements, making their own product improvements, conducting marketing strategies to market their products. At the end of the day, they can afford to collect their own fund and run the business independently. They gave back Pak Agus Nadi 50 million as their first financier, and the businesses are all theirs.
Get stories of positive business innovations from around the world delivered right to your inbox.
Agus Nadi, Founder
Kito Rato is a coffee shop run by Kita Setara Foundation based on a solopreneurship model. It’s a study case of implementing Good Corporate Governance, a company policy to support society by nurturing the disabled to become independent and encourage them to become entrepreneurs. The target is young adult disabled who tend to have a lack of competencies, both in knowledge and skills. The challenges are that most, proper education is a rare thing for the disabled, yet the opportunity to get an education is even more difficult for the disabled. For that reason, many of them got rejected in the employment opportunity because not only due to the limitation of their body function but also due to the limited education and insufficient experiences. Through Kito Rato, the disabled are given the opportunity to study business, the foundation equipped them with necessary skills and competencies, and also provide the chance to gain some experiences. Adding value to its product, Kita Setara creates another supporting program to its core program and also providing facilities such as classrooms and a library.