But this was something many Indonesians had already been doing after months of COVID-19, and as the twin health and economic crises continue to batter the country and adversely affect mental health, people have been offering helping hands to those in need and have been filling the gaps left by the government’s virus response.

Young people from a subdistrict of Bandung, West Java, for instance, started collecting waste in exchange for money, which they used to buy groceries for some 200 families with young children and pregnant women living in the area.

In August of last year, the community began hanging food packages on a gate at a nearby riverbank for more struggling families to take, a nod to the program’s name, Cantelan, which roughly translates to “hooks”.

All of this was done in the absence of government aid and amid disruptions to locally managed integrated health service posts (Posyandu), said local community head Sofyan Mustafha.

The initiative has been suspended for the past two months, after five cases of the virus were reported in the neighborhood. The money the community collected was redirected to buy food and supplies for the 36 residents who had to self-isolate at home.

Read also: Bali kicks off drive-thru virus jabs for hospitality workers

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