Selling Flowers to Buy Ice Pops
The woman who was born in Lampung successfully completed her undergraduate education at the Faculty of Human Ecology with a study in Community Nutrition, IPB University. Everyone can definitely tell that she has very brilliant career and academic journeys. But who would have thought, when she was a child, Ir. Suharti, MA, PhD, had experienced very difficult times. So, what's the story like?
Mantan Deputi Gubernur DKI Jakarta Bidang Pengendalian Kependudukan dan Permukiman, Suharti, resmi menjabat sebagai Sekretaris Jenderal Kemendikbudristek, Selasa (24/8/2021). Ia merupakan perempuan satu-satunya yang menjabat sebagai Sekjen Kemendikbudristek. Perjalanan hidupnya tak mudah, ia berasal dari keluarga miskin di desa terpencil di Lampung, tepatnya di Kabupaten Pringsewu.
Suharti is dubbed as a model woman. She grew up in a poor family in a remote village, but she never once gave up on circumstances. Suharti did not follow the habit of child marriage in her area. Instead, she was determined to continue her education with a World Bank scholarship.
Suharti memperoleh gelar Sarjana Gizi Masyarakat dan Sumber Daya Keluarga dari IPB University angkatan 1987. Kemudian, memperoleh gelar Master di bidang Applied Economics dari University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA angkatan 1999 dan PhD dari Australian National University, Canberra, Australia di bidang Demografi dan Penelitian Sosial angkatan 2013.
She has also served as Director of Population, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection at the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS).
She is one of the officials who actively provides education about Covid-19 through her social media accounts. She has also shared her childhood experience through the instagram account @suhartisutar.
Dia mengunggah foto es lilin berwarna oranye dengan caption “Menikmati es lilin mangga buatan Mbak Yuni. Alhamdulillah sekarang kalau ingin es lilin, es tung-tung, atau es krim bisa beli atau bikin tanpa kesulitan,” tulisnya.
“Dulu jaman kecil, saat masih di SD, kalau pingin es lilin harus usaha dulu cari uang. Itupun biasanya belinya paruhan sama teman. Gak mampu beli utuh. Cari uangnya gimana? Sama teman-teman cari bunga lalu dijual ke nenek-nenek penjual bunga makam,” lanjutnya.
“Even if you have pocket money, you can't eat as much as you want because there are 2 orphaned friends whose lives are even more difficult. If it's not a miracle, how about trying to make these mothers have the life they are now? Thank God," she concluded.
But who would have thought, her life could change drastically. Of course it wasn't all of a sudden. Suharti succeeded in proving that determination and effort must go hand in hand. These attitude and knowledge were capable of bringing her to success, both in terms of career and education.
Sampai sekarang, Suharti terus melakukan terobosan program untuk meningkatkan kesetaraan gender di semua sektor melalui pendidikan dan perencanaan pembangunan nasional. Ia juga pernah mengikuti beberapa program kegiatan Diklat Fungsional, di tahun 2006 ia pernah mengikuti Training on Education Finance and Decentralization in Asia. Kemudian di tahun 2007 ia mengikuti tiga pelatihan yaitu: Leadership Development Training Program, Training on Monitoring and Evaluation for Better Education Policy, Planning and Results, Bali, Indonesia, juga International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET). Pada tahun 2008, ia juga mengikuti Training on Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Performance Based Budgeting,Cjeju Island and Seoul, South Korea.
