ULM Promotes Social Transformation for Rural Women through the GALUH School in Banjar Regency
Martapura – Lambung Mangkurat University (ULM) has demonstrated its commitment to addressing gender inequality and encouraging the empowerment of rural women through the launch of the GALUH Women’s School. This program, initiated by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FKIK) ULM, targets 20 productive women in Antasan Senor Ilir Village, East Martapura District, Banjar Regency.
Running for four months from April to August 2025, this program is part of ULM’s community service activities, emphasizing education, strengthening economic capacity, and social change based on local culture.
The GALUH School—an acronym for the Literacy, Business, and Rights Movement—was developed as an empowerment platform that touches on various aspects of rural women’s lives. Through 16 sessions (8 theory and 8 practical), participants are taught about gender equality, women’s rights, family financial management, and entrepreneurial skills based on waste processing.
“We designed this school with a holistic approach based on the Betty Neuman System Model, so that village women can withstand the social and cultural pressures of patriarchy that remain strong in South Kalimantan,” explained Bernadetta Germia Aridamayanti, a Nursing lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Muhammadiyah Malang (ULM) and program leader.
The program also involved students from the Nursing and Public Health Study Programs as field facilitators. Full support also came from the BIMA Grant from the Ministry of Higher Education and the ULM Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM).
Program evaluations showed an increase in participants’ understanding of gender issues (from 45% to 85%) and women’s rights (from 40% to 80%). Entrepreneurial skills also increased sharply from 35% to 75%, followed by skills in waste management (78%), digital marketing (70%), and family financial management (73%).
One participant, Ms. Nurdiana, said she now feels more confident after participating in the training.
“I didn’t know what women’s rights were before. Now I can help my husband manage his finances and start a small business using wood waste,” she said.
The program’s distinctive innovation is the use of a wood crusher to process wood waste into fertilizer and craft materials. This green entrepreneurship approach teaches the importance of environmental sustainability while opening up new business opportunities in the village.
Not only does the training stop, ULM also established a GALUH alumni community as a forum for continued advocacy and program replication in other villages. Alumni have even begun acting as independent facilitators for new groups in their surrounding areas.
“We want the GALUH School to be a vibrant movement, not just a one-year program. Village women must have the courage to speak up and fight for their rights,” Aridamayanti emphasized.
The Village Head of Antasan Senor Ilir expressed high appreciation, stating that the ULM program has had a positive impact.
“The women are now more confident, more productive, and able to build businesses that support their families,” she said at the program’s closing.
The ULM GALUH Women’s School is now a model for community empowerment oriented toward grassroots social transformation. It is hoped that this approach can become a national best practice that can be replicated in other regions with similar cultural challenges.
