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‘Helping feels good’ say volunteers assisting disabled
Andrianto’s eyes were glued to the television showing an Asian Champions League match between Persija Jakarta and Australian club Newcastle Jets one afternoon last week
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span>Andrianto’s eyes were glued to the television showing an Asian Champions League match between Persija Jakarta and Australian club Newcastle Jets one afternoon last week.
He could not contain his excitement watching the match, standing and walking back and forth near the TV screen.
Nearby, a 61-year-old woman tried to calm him down and check on him.
“Come on now, calm down, look you’re watching a football match huh,” Roosliany said to Andrianto.
Andrianto did slowly calm down, but his eyes remained fixed on the screen, sometimes a bit too much so.
Andrianto, 23, is one of many intellectually disabled residents of Cilincing in North Jakarta whom Roosliany has assisted in the past 13 years. He lived in a small two-bedroom house with his parents and a younger brother.
His mother, 45-year-old Nariah, had gone to doctors with him ever since Andrianto was an infant up to when he entered adolescence to consult about his development, which was not like that of other children.
“He is like this, so what can I do. He is already happy enough just watching TV,” Nariah told The Jakarta Post.
Raising an intellectually challenged child was hard, Nariah admitted. But she felt grateful that she had Roosliany, who regularly came to check up on Andrianto.
Andrianto is one of 100 people with disabilities that Roosliany assists. She drops by Nariah’s house at least once a week as part of her volunteering job. Since 2005, she is registered with the Social Affairs Ministry to provide assistance to the disabled people in her community.
“The cases vary, from the mentally disabled to hearing impaired and other physical disabilities,” Roosliany told the Post.
There are 6,003 disabled people in the capital according to Jakarta Statistics Agency data from 2015.
Meanwhile, data from the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency show there are 900 disabled residents in Cilincing.
However, not all are eligible to receive assistance from the government, as the number is limited to only 100 people due to limited funds and workers. Roosliany and Ratna Ningsih, a fellow volunteer who teamed up with her in 2008, assist 86 adults with heavy disabilities and 14 children.
“So, I have to figure out which people need help the most, especially those categorized as low-income people,” Roosliany said.
She said her work ranged from surveying people in need of assistance, regularly visiting them to gain their trust and also assisting their families.
“We also guide their families on how to take care of them,” Roosliany said.
She explained that the families received Rp 500,000 (US$35) in cash every three months and staple food from the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency.
“We also check on what the family uses the money for, whether it is actually for the disabled. Some use it to buy food, there are also those that use the money for therapies,” she said.
Moreover, Roosliany helps people with disabilities get the equipment they need, such as wheelchairs or glasses. Both Roosliany and Ratna send regular reports to the agency and to the ministry on the development of the people they help.
As volunteers, the two women do not get a salary, but they do receive Rp 500,000 a month for their expenses. That amount does not cover all their costs, such as for transportation and meals. However, Roosliany and Ratna said helping those in need was what mattered the most.
“Even though we don’t get much money from this, it feels good. Thank God, we can enjoy this job assisting people with disabilities,” Ratna said.
