Empowering Society through Building English Village at Tourism
Object in Bongo Village Gorontalo Province
Enni Akhmad
1
, Yuwin Saleh
1
and Mujahid Damopolii
2
1
FITK, IAIN Gorontalo, Jln Sultan Amai, Gorontalo, Indonesia
Keywords: Empowering Society, Building English Village, at Tourism Object, in Bongo Village Gorontalo Province.
Abstract: Lecturer as the component of society should give significant contribution to the society as the implementation
of (Tridharma Perguruan Tinggi). One of the contributions is to help the government in empowering the
society in order to enable them in earning their own life sustainable. This research dealt with empowering
society through building English Village at object tourism. It was done through observation, interview, and
action. The observation was done to collect information about the natural sources and human sources
which existed in that place, thus they can be used as a media to empower the society. The action was been
done by giving workshop to the women and teenagers, as the main point in managing the English Village. The
result shown that there are four ways to empower the society through English Village at object tourism in
Bongo Village, namely identify the natural sources and human sources around the society, collect and define
some information about what are the society need and what are they do to develop their life, give workshop
and build group for providing the public service and give guidance in developing the English Village and
managing the service business.
1 INTRODUCTION
Bongo Village is one of the tourist village
located in Batudaa Pantai district Gorontalo regency,
Gorontalo Province, which is about 12 kilometers
from Gorontalo city with travel time ± 20 minutes
using a four-wheeled vehicle or two wheels, a
winding road and passing through the bay of Tomini
bay is a special attraction for visitors with a view of
coastal scenery which is amazingly stunning, so the
trip does not feel boring and tiring.
The natural condition makes Bongo Village
famous as one of the potential tourist destinations in
Gorontalo Province with its tourist attractions such as
Bubohu Park and Walimah Mosque. In Bubohu Park
there are dozens of pigeons, wooden fossils known
as wooden fossil museums, and miniature
traditional houses of Gorontalo while Mosque
Walimah or Dome Mosque has its own charm
because it is located on the top of the hill stands at
250 feet above sea level Bongo with size 10 x
10 meters. Located 250 feet above sea level makes
visitors pampered by the blue ocean scenery
stretched wide in front of him, this mosque consists of
two floors with the second floor directly roofed
sky, on the ladder of the mosque built the hijri
calendar is claimed the world's largest.
On May 9, 2004, the Provincial Government of
Gorontalo through the Governor's Decree designated
Desa Bongo as a Religious Tourism Village. The
selection of the concept of "religious" is an idea
initiated by Mr. Yosef Tahir Maruf based on the
main attraction in the village of Bongo namely the
Islamic cultural tradition in the form of "Walima"
celebration which is held every Prophet's Maulid on
12 RabiulAwal which is currently celebrated as the
Calendar of Event of tourism culture of Gorontalo
Province.
In addition to the potential of Bongo Village's
natural resources that can be empowered and
developed, Bongo Village also has potential human
resources. Based on its history, the Bongo Village
community is categorized as a society with high
customs and culture that is based on Islamic
teachings and its people have been equally involved
480
Akhmad, E., Saleh, Y. and Damopolii, M.
Empowering Society through Building English Village at Tourism Object in Bongo Village Gorontalo Province.
In Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (ANCOSH 2018) - Revitalization of Local Wisdom in Global and Competitive Era, pages 480-483
ISBN: 978-989-758-343-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

in education. These two are the main factors that
indicate the participation of the community in
community empowerment. The education level of
the Bongo village community is seen from the
number of learners ranging from the level of
kindergarten to the level of higher education in
which the dissemination is significant.
Based on the description of the potential of
natural resources and human resources owned by
Bongo Village, it shows that there are potential
resources to be empowered and developed, but
according to research Bambang Suharto et al (2015)
human resources have not been maximally
empowered, according to them it can be known from
the inclusion of human resources in the management
of natural resources in the form of involving the
community in the management of tourist attractions
other than that illustrated is the presence of family
involvement in the management of tourist
attractions. This also the researchers get from
information through forum group discussion which
was attended by the village head, community
leaders, female figures and youth cadets. In the
forum group discussion it was revealed that in fact
by looking at the natural conditions and the
existence of the village religious tourism village
Bongo in essence want to take part, they see that this
is a golden opportunity to involve themselves even
to improve the standard of living but this awareness
has not been accompanied by action real, therefore
the researchers offer a community empowerment
program through the language village, it reduces the
existing language village in Pare, Kediri.
According to Sutoro Eko (2002) Empowerment
as a process of developing, establishing,
menswadayakan, strengthening bargaining position
of underclass society to pressure forces in all fields
and sector of life while Permendagri RI Number
7 Year 2007 about Community Empowerment
Cadres, stated that community empowerment is a
strategy used in the development of society as an
effort to realize the ability and independence in
the life of society, nation and state (Article 1,
paragraph (8)).
From the above theoretical explanation can mean
that the empowerment of society is an effort to build
power itself, by encouraging, motivating and
awakening awareness of the potentials it has and
trying to develop it. These efforts are through the
provision of knowledge and skills and how to apply
them in the economic life of the community.
This study used a qualitative descriptive
approach which aimed to describe the object and
subject conditions of research based on fact or as it
was, in this to described a concept of community
empowerment through language program, especially
English with research subjects Head of Bongo
Village, young generations, students and
community.
2 METHODS
The techniques used in this research were observation,
forum group discussion, interview and documentation
with analysis data through stages namely data
collection, data reduction, data display and make
conclusion.
In data collection stage, the research collected
data that has already begun at the beginning of
the research, during the execution of the research to
the end of the study, in this phase the researcher
collected data through observation, interview,
documentation and forum group discussion.
In data reduction, the data collected through
observation, interview and documentation were
summarized and selected according to the focus of
the problems studied in this study, into a script that
will be analyzed. Unimportant data or unrelated to
the research focus is discarded. The data that has been
selected is then presented in the data presentation.
In the Presentation or display data stage, the
research presented the result of data reduction which
systematically easy to read or understood as whole
or parts in context as one unity and the last phase
was make conclusion.
The final stage was the conclusion, where the
researcher must interpret the data that has been
collected is made in the form of a brief
statement and easily understood with reference to the
problem under study.
3 RESULTS
Based on the data analysis, it found that Bongo
village which is located in Batudaa Pantai district,
Gorontalo regency, Gorontalo province, has a
natural resource to be empowered. The natural
resources is tourism object based on beach view and
Islam culture tradition. Even though, the tourism
object has been approved by the government as a
Religious Tourism Village, on May 9
th
, 2004, it
is still lack of attention mainly about the preparation
of supporting facilities of tourism. (Hartanto
&Boby, 2012). The visitors amount are around 150
people a
Empowering Society through Building English Village at Tourism Object in Bongo Village Gorontalo Province
481

week, but no significant contribution to the
maintenance of the tourism object. The natural
resource as tourism object has been identified, but the
supporting facilities such as parking lot, hostels, mini
restaurant, and souvenir shop are not prepared.
However, the establishment of the tourism object does
not give significant contribution to the society
welfare.
Based on the interview with the head village and
5 villagers, it is known that the tourism object is still
managed personality, in other words the
management is not society oriented. From the Group
Discussion Forum, we noted the villagers hope
about the tourism object can give contribution to the
society life. The discussion participants argue that
they need English course in order to empower the
youth organization namely KarangTarunadesa
organization to participate in promoting their village
potency and to anticipate the international tourist
visiting. They said that English course becomes
urgently needed, because every year the village hold
“walimah festival” a ceremony to celebrate Maulid
Nabi Muhammad SAW (a prophet Muhammad
SAW birthday) and many international tourists
attend the festival.
Referring to the discussion, it is agreed to
establish English village in that village, which the
youth organization is as the event organizer.
Because the model of teaching and learning is
adapted Pare English village model in Kediri
regency, East Java province, thus while we teach
them English, we also equip them with managerial
system ability. The establishment of English village
need supporting facilities such as rent house, cafe,
laundry house, souvenir shop, bike rent, ect, thus we
also prepare a workshop for PKK organization (a
women organization in village which is organized
the women potency to be empowered themselves).
The workshop is aiming to equip the women with
handmade ability and also the managerial system
ability.
Thus, the starting point of the English village
establishment is giving workshop to the youth
organization as the manager of the English course
and giving workshop to the women organization as
the supporting facilities suppliers for the English
Village. The English Course workshop was held
intensively for 8 days, from 06.00 am to 22.00 pm.
The handmade workshop was held for 2 days, from
08.00 am to 05.00 pm.
After the workshop finished, the next step is
holding the public exhibition. In this program, we
promoted the handmade creation by PKK
organization and performed the youth members who
joint in English workshop. We invited the
government stakeholders such as industry affair,
education affair, etc. We also included travel agency
and some privates companies to join as the
sponsorship of this exhibition. We aim that the
companies invest their capital to build supporting
facilities to maintain the tourism object. Besides, we
invited the students’ from any levels of school to
attend the exhibition, in order to promote the English
language village. We shared the leaflet and the
brochure about the tourism object and also the
English language course.
4 DISCUSSIONS
The results clearly explain that the villagers aware
their resources potency, either natural resources
potency or human resources potency, both need to be
developed and empowered. They also realize that
every citizen has responsibility to join in creating
society welfare (pasal 31 ayat 1 UUD 1945). The
societies need help from government and also other
institution such as university or college to elaborate
the resources they are owned. The university has
obligation and responsibility to held TRIDHARMA
Perguruan Tinggi (a three pillars of university
performance), namely doing teaching and learning,
doing research, and doing society service.
The result has shown that the researchers did the
research in order to help the Bongo societies to look at
together to their potencies. Through deeply
discussion in Forum Group Discussion (FGD), they
expressed their expectation to the research. The
significant step to promote Bongo village as tourism
object, and at once empower the society potency is
building the English language course. The main
reference is English language course in Pare district,
Kediri regency, East Java Province. The description of
English Language situation in Pare inspired the
5 CONCLUSIONS
In order to answer question in this research, namely
how to empower the society through building
English village at tourism object in Bongo village,
there are 4 conclusions can be drawn:
1. Identify the natural sources and human
sources around the society,
ANCOSH 2018 - Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
482

2. Collect and define some information about what
are the society need and what are they do to
develop their life,
3. Give workshop and
4. Build group for providing the public service
and give guidance in developing the English
Village and managing the service business.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to the following people who have
assisted us in various ways with this study : Kasim
Yahidji as the rector of IAIN Sultan Amai
Gorontalo for his support and motivation,
Zulkarnain Suleman as the head of ….., Abidin as
the head of Bongo village and his community who
always given their time to welcome the researcher
and always patient with their information,
SyawalMalambae as the headmaster of SMK
Pariwisata, for his goodness to facilitate the conduct
of this study, BobyThalib and DelmiyawatyNgiu as
the presenters also instructors, The English lecturers
as the presenters, finally we also acknowledge for
the people who cannot mention one by one.
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