On Wednesday, March 22, 2017, leaders and 21 bright and fortunate awardees of the USAID PRESTASI Scholarship Program (Program to Extend Scholarships and Training to Achieve Sustainable Impacts) conducted a study visit to Klinik Yayasan Angsamerah.
The visit had been facilitated by the USAID LINKAGES Program and is part of PRESTASI Program’s pre-departure training, which prepares the recipients of a USAID PRESTASI scholarship to pursue a Master degree in the US for their departure.
Part of the training are field visits to USAID backed initiatives in Indonesia, with this year’s focus being on health. The purpose of the visit to Angsamerah was to showcase a successful example of collaboration between the LINKAGES Program and one of its private clinic partners. Apart from leaders and awardees of the PRESTASI Program representatives from USAID Indonesia, LINKAGES, and selected community organizations took part in the event.
The agenda of the visit consisted of a short welcome and introduction by Angsamerah, some introductory remarks by the Chief of Party USAID Prestasi, Randall Martin, a presentation about Angsamerah and Klinik Yayasan Angsamerah more specifically by Felix Neuenschwander, Program Manager of Angsamerah Institution, testimonies of two representatives from key affected population groups, short presentations by Yayasan Kusuma Buana (YKB) and Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC), question and answer sessions, and a tour of the clinic.
The PRESTASI scholarship awardees, of whom several have a health background and will pursue a Master degree in a health related discipline, showed great interest in the work Angsamerah and its partners have been doing to improve the situation of people infected and affected by the HIV and AIDS epidemic and other sexual health problems in Indonesia.
It is hoped that through the PRESTASI program the performance and leadership skills of these Indonesian professionals can be further improved, in order for them to help promote development in Indonesia after their return from the US.
