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Start-ups, NGOs team up to help people affected by COVID-19
Grab Indonesia, e-commerce platform Tokopedia and e-wallet service OVO have agreed to open donation channels on their respective platforms to help people affected by COVID-19.
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Artists and public figures take part in a virtual concert, #dirumahaja, for charity on March 28 to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. (Courtesy of Narasi TV/-)
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tart-ups, a crowdfunding platform and non-government organizations (NGOs) have established a charity program to help those who have lost their livelihoods as a result of the partial COVID-19 lockdown.
The start-ups, including ride-hailing service provider Grab Indonesia, e-commerce platform Tokopedia and e-wallet service OVO have agreed to open donation channels on their respective platforms from April 17 to May 20 to help the people affected by COVID-19. The money will be given to Indonesia-based crowdfunding platform BenihBaik.
BenihBaik and NGOs Gusdurian Network and Pemuda Muhammadiyah – the youth wing of Muhammadiyah – will collect recipient data, buy staple foods such as rice, oil and sugar and distribute them through Grab’s motorcycle taxis.
“Our final target is to deliver staple food packages to 100,000 people, especially those who work in informal sectors,” said OVO President Director Karaniya Dharmasaputra during a press conference on Friday.
He said that in the first phase, the charity program aimed to reach 15,000 people in Greater Jakarta as it was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BenihBaik founder and senior journalist Andy F. Noya said that the crowdfunding platform team had data for at least 60,000 aid recipients including those in orphanages and nursing homes. The team is planning to collect similar data in Central and East Java soon.
“We are an ecosystem that works together comprehensively, so the aid can be delivered accordingly,” he said.
Gusdurian Network coordinator Alissa Wahid said the group sought to help informal workers such as street vendors and performers because they were vulnerable to falling into poverty as they relied on unpredictable daily incomes to survive.
As people are pushed to stay indoors during the pandemic, informal workers have lost more than 70 percent of their daily incomes, she said.
Grab Indonesia Managing Director Neneng Goenadi said the aid packages would be delivered with a “less-contact” approach following the government’s call for social distancing.
