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Journalists help students study online
Since June, journalists from the Wartawan Lintas Media group have raised funds and collected secondhand smartphones for students to learn online.
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n late September, seven students in Papua received smartphones to access online learning content as the COVID-19 pandemic had forced schools to close. They are among over 140 students in Indonesia who have received smartphones for their learning needs.
Equipped with registered SIM cards and internet quotas, the devices were distributed by the Wartawan Lintas Media (Cross-Media Journalists) group, which raised funds and collected secondhand smartphones from donors. With fundraising beginning in June, the group had collected Rp 534.8 million (US$35,959) by August.
Tsarina “Rani” Maharani, member of the group and a journalist for Kompas.com said that they were focusing on distribution of the smartphones. “We’re currently in our third batch and it may extend to the fifth or sixth batch with that amount of funding,” Rani told The Jakarta Post on Sept. 24, adding that they planned to finish up the batches well and with transparency.
The charity aims to help students from elementary to vocational schools. Teachers or parents are required to apply beforehand by filling out a form and attach photos of the students’ reports as proof. Students are asked to send examples of their creative work, such as videos of them singing the National Anthem, short stories or essays, among others.
Aside from Papua, the group has also distributed smartphones to various other provinces, including West Java, Bali and East Nusa Tenggara.
Ghina Galiya, member of the group and journalist for the Post, said distributions that could take a significant period of time posed a challenge to the initiative. There is also the concern that the smartphones will not arrive safely at each destination in Papua as the students’ addresses lack street numbers.
Furthermore, Ghina and Rani agreed that data verification was also challenging. “We had to register SIM cards by submitting details from identity and family cards. At times, the details were incomplete or invalid, and it hindered the distribution process,” said Ghina.
“We could not directly keep track [of the applicants] as the majority lived outside Jakarta,” said Rani of the applicants. “We finally verified and followed up as we don’t want to give the smartphones to the wrong hands.”
Wartawan Lintas Media consists of 11 political journalists from various media outlets, including the Post, Kompas daily newspaper, Kompas.com, Tempo, CNN Indonesia, tirto.id and Voice of Indonesia. They started the charity in March by donating sembako (staple food packages) and money to those in need.
The large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) inspired them to initiate the charity, particularly after witnessing small-scale vendors and informal workers in Jakarta. Their reportage also helped to gain insights about critical situations, including students’ difficulties in learning online. They searched for donors on Twitter, crowd-funding platform Kitabisa and through broadcast messages.
“At first we expected to get 50 secondhand smartphones as donating money is different from donating smartphones,” Rani said. “But it turned out that the responses were positive. Two weeks after announcing it on Twitter, we received more than 50 smartphones. It’s beyond our expectations.”
As for their charity, Ghina said that it would be possible for them to start their activity again in the future, especially if people still wanted to donate. (wng)
