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Data issue hinders government help for COVID-19 orphans
While some COVID-19 orphans can rely on relatives, it is feared that many others have no one to look after them and miss out on government help due to a lack of data.
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A gravedigger wearing personal protective equipment walks in the Muslim burial area provided by the government for COVID-19 victims, in Jakarta on July 7, 2021. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
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ometime in December last year, 17-year-old Ragil in South Tangerang, Banten, lost his father to COVID-19, only months after his mother died of breast cancer.
For several months, he was under the care of his eldest brother, a 25-year-old undergraduate student in Semarang, Central Java who temporarily returned home for Ragil and his 20-year-old brother Hakim, also an undergraduate student.
For a moment, Hakim was worried about Ragil's education and his future without parents.
"I was worried whether my brother could continue his education because the money my father left was not that much and would not be enough to fund, for example, private education," Hakim told The Jakarta Post.
"That was why my eldest brother came up with the idea for [Ragil] to apply for [an English course] at 'Kampung Inggris'," Hakim said, referring to Pare district in East Java known as a home to numerous language institutions offering English courses and conversation classes.
Hakim remained thankful that Ragil and himself could also live off their father's pension fund and sometimes donations from neighbors and relatives and friends of their father.
Ragil is among many Indonesian children who have lost their parents to the pandemic, including those far younger than him, such as 10-year-old Vino from East Kalimantan, who attracted national attention.
