Solidarity Keeps Thriving

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A community group distributes food aid on Friday (05/15/2020) to residents of four neighborhood units (RT) in Manggarai, South Jakarta. Residents came in person to receive the food aid, provided by a consortium of state-owned mining companies, which was intended to help ease the burdens of people affected by Covid-19.

The Covid-19 pandemic has aroused the awareness of Indonesians. People actively raising aid funds for pandemic control by making donations to those in need.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Social solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic continues to grow. People are motivated to provide aid to those most impacted in the fight against the novel coronavirus. This phenomenon further proves that residents’ philanthropy withstands the test of time.

Fund-raising through statutory bodies as well as individual efforts is burgeoning. Although the control of the pandemic is still considered imperfect, the phenomenon is appreciated by various circles both at home and abroad.

The state in this context cannot work alone. The social capital already formed for quite some time needs proper coordination. ”Their initiatives should be coordinated rather than left on their own so that this solidarity movement can be more systematic,” said University of Indonesia sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo on Sunday (17/5/2020).

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Imam explained that in nearly all disasters, ranging from the visible ones like earthquakes and tsunamis to the Covid-19 pandemic, the nation’s social solidarity tended to strengthen, with residents or communities and institutions on the move to procure aid.

The growth of solidarity in Indonesia is in line with the 2018 record that for the first time Indonesia was categorized as the most charitable country in the world by the Charities Aid Foundation through the World Giving Index 2018. Indonesia’s charity score was 59 percent, based on the criteria of giving help to foreigners in need, donating money and being prepared to become volunteers.

Indonesia’s score did not change much compared with that in 2017, when it ranked second after Myanmar. In the case of helping foreigners in need (46 percent), although excluded from the top ten countries, Indonesia still scored higher than Myanmar (40 percent).

In making donations, Indonesia occupied the second place with 78 percent. Legatum Prosperity Index in 2019 positioned Indonesia fifth out of 167 countries in the social capital category. This category measures personal capacities and social relations, social values, and social participation as citizens.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Maintaining physical distance, 250 workers prepare individual packages of food aid on Saturday (16/5/2020) at the Goodang.com warehouse in Neglasari, Tangerang municipality, Banten. The President’s special food aid program distributed at least 80,000 packages of food aid from 15 May to 21 May 2020 to underprivileged people in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, to help them cope with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, aid from people to people has been flowing endlessly. The fund-raising website in the cyber net, Kitabisa.com, records that the funds raised to support Covid-19 control has totaled over Rp140 billion from around 2 million donors.

Kitabisa.com founder Al Fatih Timur said the distribution of funds already utilized had reached 80 percent, derived from the various campaigns launched. For example, the #BersamaLawanCorona campaign executed by Kitabisa.com managed to raise more than Rp28 billion from about 269,000 donors.

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From the funds, during 16 March-14 May 2020, some of the aid was already distributed to a number of hospitals and community health centers, included face masks (116,671 pieces), personal protective gear (38,872 sets), face protectors (2,584 units), nurse caps (2.250 pieces), medical glasses (10,340 pairs), medical hand gloves (252,920 pairs) and medical footwear (9,686 pairs).

This condition, noted Fatih, indicated that citizens’ social capital had been formed for being able to share and help each other. Kitabisa.com also becomes an eyewitness to millions of virtues in society. ”Our solidarity ’muscles’ have taken due to some training. However, what we’ve done seems to remain far from enough. So mutual assistance should be further carried on,” he added.

Apart from that, in West Kalimantan, residents as members of Pasukan Amal Sholeh (Paskas or charity troop) Baitulmaal Munzalan Indonesia deliver Idul Fitri packages to remote areas, crossing muddy routes for more than ten hours. Paskas Baitulmaal Munzalan Indonesia of Sintang regency has to traverse many roads that are hard to pass through.

”Sometimes the routes are only footpaths. In this case, only motorcycles can be used (by dispatch riders). Packages are thus carried by those riding pillion. There are eight to 10 packages with them,” said a patron of Baitulmaal Munzalan Indonesia of Sintang, Uray Bilchairi Jakti.

Not only going through footpaths, they also have to cross small bridges and muddy tracks.

Not only going through footpaths, they also have to cross small bridges and muddy tracks. Nevertheless, however tough the terrain may be, they keep trailing. With the holiday packages, they hope at least some happy moments can be enjoyed by disadvantaged people.

In in capital city, solidarity has emerged from many groups. Among them is Azka Putri, 27, a private employee. She is driven to donate staple food along with some of her friends in East Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java. ”Near my house a number of residents have been dismissed and need some aid,” she said.

This phenomenon was acknowledged in an article of The Diplomat entitled ”Indonesia and Covid-19: What the World Is Missing”, published on 24 April 2020. Although it was initially reported that the Indonesian government was stumbled in anticipating Covid-19, it was then realized that something had been overlooked.

Shane Preuss, who wrote the article, said Indonesia was not alone. Governments across the world, not to mention the World Health Organization, also miscalculated the threat.

What was missed, said Preuss, was that the bottom-up initiatives showed another side of the country’s COVID-19 response. ”Indonesians will confront the COVID-19 crisis with confidence together, and that is something worth highlighting,” she wrote.

Kompas

A man donates a bag of basic cooking ingredients on Saturday (16/5/2020) at a food aid distribution point in Rejodani hamlet, Sariharjo village in Ngaglik, Sleman, Yogyakarta. The village has set up four distribution points for the community food aid program, which allows local residents to share and help each other during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Data volunteers

Other than donations, the social solidarity action can also be done by providing information about the situation related to Covid-19 that will serve as accurate data. The effort to offer transparent data on Covid-19 is being handled by LaporCovid19.

In line with fund raising, a lot of data volunteers are still needed to assist in the search for valid data on Covid-19, which will later be used to complete the government’s data so as to be able to adopt the right policy. ”At present, only 345 of the 514 regencies/cities in Indonesia have had data volunteers. We still need data volunteers to help renew daily data concerning Covid-19,” said Irma Hidayana, an initiator of the LaporCovid-19 platform.

The general public, said Irma, could take part by giving reports on surrounding conditions, covering reports on crowding, on complaints about service and Covid-19 control and complaints about tests.

From the data already gathered, LaporCovid19 has found death report data still incomplete for not including the death of people under surveillance (ODP) and patients under control (PDP). In this way, the death rate difference between ODP/PDP and confirmed Covid-19 cases in 24 provinces is 3.5-fold.

For instance, if 100 people die from confirmed Covid-19, there should be around 350 people who die, including those with the status of PDP and ODP. It means that data are very important to give a whole picture of the impact of Covid-19.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A citizens browse packages of donated food on Sunday (17/5/2020) at a food aid distribution point in Jati Padang, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. The community food aid program provides assistance for people who have lost their livelihoods or are living on reduced incomes as a result of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) implemented in Jakarta.

With this phenomenon, Muslim intellectual Azyumardi Azra regarded Indonesia as fortunate to have a strong philanthropic tradition. The various forms of mutual help (ta’awun), collective effort and solidarity become an integral part of the life of Indonesian citizens at all times.

Indonesian philanthropists, Azyumardi revealed, had given medical aid, provided basic necessities and cash funds for residents who had lost their earnings. (SHR/ESA/DIV/FAI/IKI/CHE/RTG)

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