Integrated Economic Empowerment Model for Rural Islamic Barding Schools in West Borneo Indonesia

This study was conducted in a traditional Islamic boarding school (IBS) located in West Kalimantan. Among the existed boarding schools in the area, Pondok Pesantren Abdussalam was chosen due to its potential. This study adopted qualitative approach, utilized observation, documentation, interview and focus-group discussion (FGD) technique in collecting the data which then being analyzed using action research technique. The originality of the study is as follow: the study in this topic area has not been conducted previously, especially the one which focuses on the integrated economics improvement of IBS in rural area. The study result shows that there have been some economic activities in the institution in spite of its remote location. Additionally, the economic activities have been provided the institution with some benefits. However, the effect of such activities have not been felt fully yet. There have been three reasons in regard with this situation, namely insufficient human resources who have expertise in existed economic sector, limited capital as well as infrastructure factor. We propose the synergetic model to solve these three issues. The model is a cooperative model which can be implemented both with internal institution such as internal sharia micro-finance institution or with external institution such as local government or universities.