The Field Visit was the final activity in the program on journalistic education aimed at improving the journalistic writing skills of members of the pesantren community in West Java. This visit was held over 3 days, from June 18-20, 2007 and featured visits to Pesantren Al Ittifaq in Bandung, Pesantren Persis in Tarogong, and WCC Balqis in Cirebon, West Java. Thirty (30) participants were present, consisting of 22 men and 8 women who had previously participated in ICIP's workshop and training in this program. The facilitators who accompanied the participants were Stanley Adi Presetya from ISAI and Donny, a freelance journalist.

Day 1 on June 18, 2007 began at PP Al Ittifaq, Bandung. The organisers and particpants met at this pesantren, which is reknowned for its agro-business focus. PP Al Ittifaq itself is located 50 km to the south of Bandung. The choice of Al Ittifaq as a site for the field visit was not without reason. The self-reliance of this pesantren in economic matters as well as its success in developing agro-business were the main reasons behind choosing this pesantren. It was hoped that the success and experience provided by Al Ittifaq would not only become a source of writing material for participants, but also could become an example to be followed in their own regions.

Following this participants were divided up into 3 groups and received their respective assignments. On this first day, Group 1 was asked to write a Feature article, Group 2 was asked to write up an interview/prifle. Group 3 was asked to write up a report on the visit. Each group was asked to cover the areas surrounding the pesantren and find story ideas for their respective tasks up until maghrib, and following this write them up.

Day 2, on Tuesday June 19, 2007 particpants visited PP Persatuan Islam (Persis) 76 in Tarogong, Garut. The division of tasks this time had Group 1 writing up an interview,Group 2 the visit report and Group 3 the feature article. Participants arrived at Pesis at 4pm and were warly welcomed by the leader of Persis 76 Ustadz Iqbal Santoso. Ustadz Iqbal himself has worked with ICIP pervoiusly and has always actively sent representatives to each of ICIP’s activities. The main reason for choosing Persis 76 for the visit was because compared to other Persis schools, Persis 76 has succeeded in integrating regular school and pesantren subjects. To this stage, 75% of Persis 76 alumni have been accepted to higher education, and some in fact have received scholarships to continue their studies abroad. Persis’ mission is to ”produce moral cadres (akhlaq karimah) who are tafaqquh-fidhin and are able to utilize Information Technology.

For Day 3, Wednesday June 20, 2007, participants visited the Women’s Crisis Center (WCC) Balqis in Cirebon. The travel time from Garut to Cirebon took approximately 4 hours. Participants reached Cirebon at 1pm, staying at the Zamrud Hotel. At 2pm, participants travelled to WCC Balqis which is located in the Arjawinangun area. The division of tasks this time saw Group 1 writing the visit report, Group 2 writing the feature article and Group 3 writing up an interview/profile. The choice of WCC Balqis as one of the sites for the field visit was because it was formed and is run by people from the pesantren community. Furthermore the activities undertaken by WCC Balqis have received a positive response from the surrounding community, which shows that pesantren also care about women’s issues, especially those who are victims of violence. 

Participants were active throughout the program, conducting interviews, writing up their reports and discussing the results with other participants and the facilitators. It is hoped that in the future not only will the writing skills learnt throughout the program be put to use, but also that the participants might learn something from the organisations visited and also apply these lessons in their own communities.