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.
‘Never give up’: Volunteering stories during COVID-19
If you feel you are about to throw your hands up amid the dark times of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article might make you want to hang on to life, because at the same time globally, including in Indonesia, there are various charity and volunteering activities seeking to alleviate the suffering of people all around
Change Size
I
f you feel you are about to throw your hands up amid the dark times of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article might make you want to hang on to life, because at the same time globally, including in Indonesia, there are various charity and volunteering activities seeking to alleviate the suffering of people all around. You can find new meaning in life by supporting these movements or starting your own initiative.
One of these initiatives is organized by Resa Boenard, the cofounder of Seeds of Bantar Gebang (BGBJ), a non-profit organization seeking to help scavengers in the landfill area of Bantar Gebang in Bekasi, West Java.
“So many recycling companies have ceased operations, so the scavengers have lost their jobs reselling waste to these companies. The value of plastic waste has also declined steeply, from Rp 2,000 [14 US cents] per kilogram to just Rp 400 per kg since COVID-19 began to spread in Indonesia, causing scavengers’ income to dwindle,” Resa told The Jakarta Post over the phone.
Another problem: Many members of the scavenger community, comprising some 24,000 families in the area, are not eligible for government assistance because they do not have their ID cards issued in Bekasi. The community manages Jakarta’s 8,000 tons of trash, which arrives there on a daily basis.
Thus Resa launched an online fundraising campaign to provide food to the scavengers’ families via kitabisa.com and gofundme.com on April 27, supported by a campaign on the organization’s Instagram account @thebgbj. Resa’s organization has managed volunteers comprising not only people from Indonesia but also tourists from the United States, Australia and various European countries staying in their community hostel to give language and arts classes to local children.
She said she was surprised by people’s unexpected acts of kindness in the fundraising campaign.
“Mid-May, someone from popular television presenter Najwa Shihab’s media start-up Narasi TV called us, she said she was looking to support fundraising campaigns supporting scavengers’ families and stumbled upon our page on kitabisa.com. Narasi TV donated about Rp 50 million through its stay-at-home musical concert program,” Resa said.
The campaign has attracted calls from milk companies who wanted to donate milk cartons to children living in Bantar Gebang.
The community used the money to distribute packages of food and basic needs. According to Resa, it has distributed about 1,300 packages so far.
“I believe that you should never give up on your fate, even if all of a sudden you find yourself out of a job, you should always stand back up again. To promote good things, we should start from simple acts and build from there,” Resa said.
The same idea that now is the best time to start spreading kindness because once you have started, doors will open for you, is also shared by Aqmarina Andira, the cofounder of Rumah Cerita, a literacy promotion organization for primary and secondary students she established with her friends Amirah Kaca and Ira Wulandari in 2014.
The organization used to manage up to 130 volunteers to run several big programs such as joining the children’s fringe event of the ASEAN Literary Festival Jakarta in 2016 and 2017 as well as creating its own Jakarta Storytelling Festival in November 2017.
Since large-scale social restrictions were implemented in Jakarta and its satellite cities, the organization has initiated several Instagram Live sessions featuring testimonies from Indonesian and Malaysian volunteers on its account @rumahceritaorg.
The organization wants to remind people about the enormous joy of giving and sharing.
“We didn’t feel tired at all at the end of our programs because we felt the impact we had on the children, watching them being motivated to improve their learning skills upon feeling that they are being seen and attended to,” Aqmarina said.
Resa, meanwhile, relished seeing the local children boost their confidence in speaking English upon interacting frequently with native speaking tourists who volunteered for her community. She added that she was amazed how rapidly online fundraising and social media platforms bypassed bureaucracy and other administrative matters to generate impacts for her fundraising programs.
Meanwhile, Julia F. Agusta, the chairwoman of the Leon Agusta Institute, a non-profit based in West Sumatra named after the Minangkabau poet, said the organization drew on strong Minangkabau cultural and intellectual traditions to energize its volunteers’ fighting spirit, especially in the context of the devastating impacts of COVID-19.
Currently, the organization is raising funds that will be used to distribute food to West Sumatran residents who have lost their income or jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations can be sent to a PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Sumatera Barat (Bank Nagari) account.
According to Julia, to instill this “cultural ethic” among its community, the institute has previously organized awards for development projects with a cultural vision, Minangkabau martial arts classes, cultural dialogues involving university students and other stakeholders.
“We want to boost volunteers’ spirit of giving, knowing that to build this country we need more social and cultural activities,” she said.
