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Gotong Royong: How private companies in Indonesia are starting their own vaccination
What is the Gotong Royong private vaccination scheme and how can companies in Indonesia make use of it in the fight against COVID-19?
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center) kicks off the Gotong Royong private vaccination scheme at a PT Unilever Indonesia factory in the Jababeka industrial estate in Bekasi, West Java, on Tuesday. (Unilever Indonesia/Unilever Indonesia)
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s delays in overseas shipments from COVID-19 vaccine producers have slowed down Indonesia’s vaccination drive, the country is confronting the question of what to do about its vaccination goals.
Indonesia is looking to inoculate about 181.5 million people, about two-thirds of the population, by March 2022. However, since the public rollout began on Jan. 13, only 9 million people have been fully vaccinated with two jabs.
A private scheme, dubbed the Gotong Royong vaccination program, was introduced and approved in March to help move things along.
Gotong royong is an Indonesian expression that translates to mutual cooperation.
The idea behind the initiative is simple: Instead of wasting crucial time in the long wait for the national vaccination program, private and state companies can procure their own supplies of vaccines to inoculate employees and their families.
When the nation officially kicked off on Tuesday the private vaccination scheme, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told reporters that the program was hoped to “help us achieve herd immunity [to] curb the spread of COVID-19 and eliminate the disease from our beloved country”.
“We hope that we will have inoculated 70 million people by August or September,” Jokowi said in a live-streamed press statement.
