The world of mining is known as the world of men. But sometimes this is not the case. Amanda Yudha AK, a woman who originally comes from Padang, West Sumatra, is at the forefront of blasting services at as DAHANA Project Site. This woman, who is popularly known Manda, shared stories about the challenges of DAHANA’s female employees stationed at the project site, from the process of adapting to a new challenging environment to how to the situation where she had to live in limited conditions.
Manda started her journey at DAHANA when she tried to apply for a job at Bank Mandiri, where she spotted a vacancy at DAHANA on an announcement board. After finding out about DAHANA, this woman, who has an educational background in chemistry, sent a letter application and she was was finally accepted by the Indonesian Explosives Qibla company.
For Miss Yudha, moving from place to another place is normal. Since childhood, she has frequently moved from one place to another following his parents work assignment and therefore adaptation has not been an issue for her. This time DAHANA challenged her by assigning her to various sites that were far from convenient access.
“When stationed at the Melak site in East Kalimantan, the journey to the area took 12 hours by land from Balikpapan Airport. The Melak site is one of the furthest sites owned by DAHANA. There, adaption gave me another definition. It was a challenge for me for the fact that everything was hard to get. Even if there was one, the price was much more expensive. What’s interesting is that the local people still hold very strong customs there,” said Miss Yudha (31/01/24).
Miss Yudha admitted, that apart from the Melak Site, the Job Site Project J Resources was also full of challenges. This company is one of DAHANA’s customers which operates in the gold mining sector which is located in a remote area that requires extraordinary air, land and sea travel.
“It seems like in JsP J Resources, even if we have a suitcase of money, it won’t be useful, because there won’t be any meatball seller is around. This site is on an island where no people are seen in a distance of 5 km from the site. It’s really a restricted area, with still lots of rare wild animals such as crocodiles, cobras, eagles, wild boars and many others,” added Miss Yudha.
She added that surviving in limited conditions such as working on a site is the most interesting experience. She admitted that as a human being she really feels grateful to have been given so many extraordinary experiences.
Miss Yudha also shared tips for quickly adapting and feeling at home with limited conditions. One way is to organize your mindset as effective as possible by finding activities that can improve your mood, and don’t lament too much about conditions that don’t meet your expectations; rather always think positive.
“Thank you to DAHANA for giving me the opportunity to have a career, and to be assigned in various mines, both coal and gold, up to now being stationed in the Jsp PT Solusi Bangun Indonesia limestone mine in Narogong. I had such a good number of interesting experiences. I hope that there will be another female PJOs besides me who are trusted by DAHANA to handle the project,” concluded Miss Yudha.
