Her middle to lower category economic condition did not dampen the determination of Heny Fitriyani (21 years old) to continue her education to college, especially when she found out that both parents support her wishes. Her enthusiasm for learning and achieving her dreams has been nurtured while attending her junior high school in Jatimulyo village. But, since then both of her ears have started to latch onto abnormalities. In recent times when her college activities were about to start, she was quite restless with her ear problems.

Likewise, Nurul Arista Pamungkas (13 years old) was in grade 4 elementary school of Dodogan Jatimulyo Village. Since she was a toddler, she has had problems with her right ear. The hearing loss made her less confident when hanging out with her friends.

The treatment process for both ears was uncertain before the ECED Coordinator of Jatimulyo village, Sri Wahyuni, contacted SurveyMETER in early March 2016. She asked SurveyMETER to help reduce the cost of treating school-aged children with hearing loss. They proposed three poor children school-age as targets as suggestions from the government of Jatimulyo village.

SurveyMETER examined the 3 children a week later at Bethesda Hospital Yogyakarta and classified their results were as mild and moderate. A child with mild hearing impairment qualifications was advised to follow therapy, yet the two children with moderate deterioration need hearing aids thus far.

SurveyMETER initially contacted an NGO to cooperate with, but unfortunately, it could only provide help to patients with severe hearing-impaired qualifications. Since hearing loss for those who are in school is very disturbing so it was determined from the beginning that with or without allies, SurveyMETER social program must go on.

Until its time came to the unforgettable day for the two students, the deliveries of hearing aids were carried out on Wednesday, November 5, 2016, at their homes in Jatimulyo village, Dlingo, Bantul respectively.

“This relief is a SurveyMETER social activity and we just help for two children at this chance,” said Henry Setyo Nugroho, from SurveyMETER to the acting village head of Jatimulyo, Mr. Sunoto, at the village hall.

"Representing the government and villagers, we thank you for the assistance from SurveyMETER since we ourselves have not been able to help them," said Mr. Sunoto who also told about his flagship program to promote tourism villages after several hamlets found suitable destinations for sale. A few moments later, he took SurveyMETER to the house of the two children targeted for assistance.

"We are very grateful for this assistance, hopefully, it can help Nurul in her studies," said Mrs. Titik, Nurul's mother when her child was being instructed how to use a hearing aid. She said already tried several times to treat Nurul's ear with alternative herbal treatments. In fact, she had been deceived hundreds of thousands of rupiahs by them.

A shy smile tugged on Nurul's lips, "now, your voice sounds clearer, Sir!" said Nurul, answering a question from Mr. Sunoto that also tested its tool sensitivity.

At least, she would no longer worry nor would be frightened facing the commencement of college next month since these hearing aids could also be used during the learning process of the college. In addition, she remembered when she was in high school being repeatedly treated and having her ears checked by an ENT doctor costing a lot of money.

Quoted from Henry as conveyed to Mr. Sunoto, it was a small testimony that although the mentoring program was completed in early 2015 at Jatimulyo village, once assisted would never be left behind by SurveyMETER. At the end of the program, SurveyMETER encouraged each village to inform if anything that we might help with.

As previously informed, the SurveyMETER assistance program for two villages in the Bantul district with the support of the Knowledge Sector Initiative was completed in early 2015. However, the non-formal assistance was still being carried out. In fact, one of the hamlets in Guwosari Village was still being special assistance in the elderly issue by implementing SurveyMETER's 'CSR' funds.

The mentoring program was basically implemented in early 2013 with an agenda for assisting to issues of institutionalizing the village administration system, basic public services, and compiling village profiles in the two villages. In the next few months, the field of basic public services shifted to focus on ECED support and elderly health assistance.

Naturally, the responses of the two villages were different. The government and community leaders of Jatimulyo village were more responsive to the ECED program. Meanwhile, Guwosari village was in the elderly program and village profile preparation in the PRODESKEL application of the Ministry of Home Affairs by the effort to ensure the quality of the data collected.

The outputs of these mentoring programs at the two villages were generally by efforts to identify and develop village potentials as well as fostering independence and community participation to improve basic public services, especially on the elderly health assistance and early childhood education (ECED) support program issues.  (JF)