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Jakarta Post

One year into outbreak, Indonesians soldier on

Communities band together to survive pandemic

Ardila Syakriah and Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, March 2, 2021

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One year into outbreak, Indonesians soldier on

W

hen Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin was sworn into the position in December 2020, he said this about the country’s COVID-19 efforts: “We believe it is not enough for the government to come up with its own programs; there must be a movement carried out together with the Indonesian people."

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

The neighborhood pitched in Rp 1 million per day in the absence of government aid, Sofyan said, with donations coming even from low-income residents, whose job security had been compromised by the outbreak.

Many of the residents hit hardest by the pandemic were not even listed as potential recipients of state social assistance. In addition, the benefits afforded through the scheme have been reduced this year.

“The pandemic is going to last for a while. It won’t end this year. Waiting for the government takes a long time, so we’re just doing it on our own,” Sofyan said on Sunday.

Indonesia announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 2 of last year and its first death on March 11. Now, a year into the epidemic, hundreds of people in the country are dying from the disease on a daily basis. The cumulative total exceeded 36,000 deaths on Monday.

More than 1.3 million people in the country have caught the virus, although the true scale of the outbreak is believed to be much higher. More than 150,000 people have recovered or are recovering.

The spread of the illness and the ensuing mobility constraints have resulted in the highest rate of unemployment the country has seen in a decade. Some 2.67 million people had lost their jobs by August 2020, making for a total of 9.77 million people out of work.

Read also: Indonesia starts vaccinating seniors, but many confused by online registration, long queues

Poverty has hit a three-year high with 27.55 million citizens living below the poverty line, which is currently defined as spending less than Rp 458,947 (US$ 33) per capita per month for both food and nonfood goods.

With the state’s haphazard pandemic response early on, many were left with no choice but to persevere.

Those most affected by the pandemic include young people working in the informal sector, such as freelancers and blue collar workers, said Lengga Pradipta, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

According to her research, most of the people who lost their jobs over the past year were between the ages of 25 and 45. Many in this group have shifted to the creative sector or have tried their hand at establishing their own businesses to survive.

Based on her findings, nearly 68 percent of people in this “sandwich” generation – a group that tends to have both parents and children as dependents – acknowledged that their incomes had decreased since the pandemic broke out, and 25 percent of those surveyed from this group said they had to sell most of their assets to survive and support their families.

In spite of this, Lengga said her research found that this group was also among the most resilient.

Read also: Private COVID-19 vaccination touted as ‘gotong royong’ effort, but can it really help?

“They must bear a double burden – to survive financially and also maintain their mental health,” she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The Indonesian Psychiatrists Association (PDSKJI) has noted a growing awareness of mental health as people’s understanding of COVID-19 has increased.

Coping skills were neglected in the first six months of the pandemic as many people were in denial, but this changed as they gradually witnessed the loss of family members and jobs, and along with that, they complied more diligently with health protocols, said PDSKJI head Diah Setia Utami.

“Entering the one-year mark, people have started to [...] adapt to the pandemic and be less anxious about dealing with it. This is a form of self and community resilience,” she said on Monday.

On Ratri Anindya, Indonesia’s third confirmed COVID-19 patient, after her sister and mother, the disease has left an indelible mark. Journalists swarmed her family’s house after her sister’s private information leaked, and online, the family faced a barrage of criticism, mainly accusing them of spreading the virus to Indonesia.

She said that while she still experienced online bullying, some strangers had been reaching out to support her and seek information about the disease. This, in turn, motivated her to share her personal experience, despite the psychological impacts of being exposed to the disease and the media frenzy.

"It is a disaster that everybody is facing, so I thought – what part can I play?” Ratri told the Post on Monday.

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