TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsIn volunteering, recognition is not the goal itself
It is essential that volunteerism is understood not as an “import” but rather as something very much part of the local fabric.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Volunteers from Pawon'e Arek-Arek, an independent collective that grows most of its own foodstuff to give people in need. (Courtesy of Ivan Darski/Ivan Darski)
V
olunteers around the world have played a very important role since the COVID-19 pandemic began and their contributions will continue to remain essential in Indonesia and throughout the world.
Amid increased interest in the role volunteerism could play in a post-pandemic society as an effective tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030, it is important to hear the voices of experts of the sector. One of them is Retha Dungga, the cofounder of Indorelawan, the biggest platform in Indonesia on a mission to mobilize thousands of volunteers, enabling them to connect with a myriad of local organizations on the ground focused on achieving the “common good”.
Let’s start with the basics.
It is essential that volunteerism is understood not as an “import” but rather as something very much part of the local fabric.
It does not matter how we refer to it, “volunteerism is actually how Indonesians navigate the challenges of daily life, especially among those who have close relationships,” shares Retha.
To better understand volunteerism, we need to see it as a part of a continuum, as recently advocated by the United Nations Volunteers.
It starts with forms of reciprocity, mutual aid and self-help, and gets to other forms of help, informal or more formal and it is in the latter where Indorelawan makes a difference by connecting more than 170,000 volunteers to local organizations and initiatives on the ground.
