Community Empowerment through Islamic Education-Based Thematic KKN: Integration of Education, Health, Economy, and Environment in Denai Kuala Village, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra

Abstract

Community empowerment is a form of higher education service that aims to increase community capacity through the use of local potentials and needs. Denai Kuala Village, Pantai Labu District, Deli Serdang Regency has community potential that can be developed through strengthening educational, health, economic, and environmental aspects. This activity aims to optimize the empowerment of the Denai Kuala Village community through the implementation of Thematic Real Work Lectures (KKN) which are integrated in these four fields. The implementation method uses a participatory and educational approach through observation, identification of needs, coordination with the village government and the community, program implementation, mentoring, and evaluation. Educational programs include Maghrib Mengaji, teaching activities at SDN 105338 Denai Kuala Village, memorization of short surahs, and anti-bullying education. Health programs include Posyandu for the Elderly and Toddlers as well as healthy gymnastics. Economic programs are carried out through the manufacture of brooms and creative piggy banks, while environmental programs include mutual cooperation, mosque care activities, village sign making, and decoration of the village head's office. The activities involved children, pupils, toddlers, older adults, cadres, residents, and village officials. Attendance was more regular than before the program, for example in Maghrib Mengaji (10–11 of 11 children per session, compared with about five children who studied the Qur’an around the post before the program) and in the Posyandu for the elderly (43 compared with 35 per session), and the program received positive responses from parents, the school, cadres, and village officials; long-term impacts remain to be evaluated. Community empowerment needs to be carried out in an integrated manner by placing the community as the subject of development and supported by continuous collaboration between the village government, the community, health cadres, educational institutions, and universities