61 Papuan Men and Women Receive Scholarships from the Ministry of Religion

The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) has launched an educational scholarship program for 61 Papuan children in West Papua Province to strengthen religious harmony in the area. Deputy Minister of Religion, Zainut Tauhid, said that this educational scholarship was part of the I Love Papua program launched by the Minister of Religion Fachrul Razi recently.

"In the I Love Papua program there are three areas that are the focus of the Ministry of Religion. Among them are strengthening the FKUB (Forum for Religious Harmony) and strengthening the values ??of religious moderation," he said, Friday (21/8).

In strengthening the values ??of religious moderation, the Ministry of Religion launched an educational scholarship program. The selected participants have been dispatched to receive education at a number of universities in Indonesia.

Zainut said that the first wave was focused on Christian universities. "They will learn moderate religious values ??and the values ??of love. For the time being there are only 61 people and we will continue this program in the future," he said.

Zainut is grateful that religious harmony in West Papua is very good, this is evident from the results of research conducted by the Ministry of Religion in 2019.

"Religious harmony in West Papua is the best in Indonesia. From the research we did, the index of religious harmony in West Papua received the highest score, namely 82.29 percent," he said.

He hopes that this condition will continue to be maintained to support the development carried out by both local and central governments.

"We also appreciate the efforts of the regional government. The governor's role is quite large in maintaining religious harmony. We see that the empowerment program in the religious sector carried out by the regional government in West Papua is quite good. Hopefully the governor can continue," he said.