A sense of empathy among students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Surabaya, East Java has given birth to a social movement aimed at gathering aid and providing assistance to fellow students.
The social movement dubbed 'Gotong Royong Sekolah Peduli Suroboyo' (Together Schools Care for Surabaya) has seen many elementary school students and middle school students joining hands to gather aid.
In just two weeks, the students have amassed assistance in the form of cash and food packages and handed it directly to the Surabaya City government.
Aloysiana Gita, the coordinator of the initiative said in Surabaya on Thursday, that it all began when the students saw that many of their fellow students were facing monetary issues, since many had parents who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Some students had lost their parents to COVID-19, which had strained their families' financial condition, Gita added.
She said that she felt the need for an initiative that could help fellow students by collecting donations from students of both state and private schools.
"We really wish to ease the economic burden on our friends," she added.
Under the initiative, students handed aid to their respective schools. Each school provided meticulously arranged boxes, complete with instructions, so that the students could categorize the assistance they were to offer.
She said that each school had their own drop boxes so if students wanted to give rice, they could put it in a box marked 'rice'. Same was the case with sugar and other things, she added.
The fundraising was voluntary, Gita said. No one forced students to provide aid, she added.
Despite that, students were highly enthusiastic about coming together to help others, she said. There was no amount fixed for donations, and they were at liberty to give as much as they wished, she added.
There was an issue in coordinating all schools for the fundraising program, she said. Thankfully, the Surabaya Education Office stepped in and apprised all school principals in the city of the event, she revealed.
Each student council (OSIS) reported the assistance collected on a daily basis, she informed. Eventually, in just about two weeks, from August 2 to August 13, 2021, all assistance was collected, she added.
Gita, who is currently in the 9th grade, said she was pleasantly surprised and filled with pride when she found out that they had amassed more than Rp1 billion (almost US$70 thousand). It was voluntary, so they had not set a target on how much they wanted to collect, she added.
"(I was) So surprised. It was also talked about a lot on social media. They took some from their savings, there are also parents/guardians of students who participated, donating for this program," she said.
Chairman of State Middle School 1 Surabaya Student Council, Muhammad Hilmy Farasyah, expressed the hope that the program could lift some of the burden on the people affected by the pandemic. He said that he had also donated some of the pocket money he had received from his parents to assist in COVID-19 handling in Surabaya.
The 9th grader also encouraged and invited his friends to continuously assist the government in helping COVID-19 affected people.
The same sentiment was voiced by a 6th grader from Airlangga state elementary school 1 Surabaya, Natalia Wahyu Putri. She said she was happy that she could help others, and in doing so, support the city government's COVID-19 handling effort. Her parents had contracted COVID-19 in 2020, she informed.
Putri said that she wanted to help her friends who are currently facing hardship, and her participation in the initiative was purely her own decision.
Support from schools
Some schools in Surabaya also supported the social initiative by providing posts for the Gotong Royong Sekolah Peduli Suroboyo program. The posts were located in the schools' front yards so that students or parents/guardians could put the aids in the placed boxes as soon as they entered the school.
For example, in State Middle School 1 Surabaya, a group of students would come with parents, bringing items such as rice, instant noodles, sugar, and cooking oil and deposit them in the boxes. Once collection was completed, the school handed the donations to the Surabaya City government for distribution to people affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Principal of State Middle School 1 Surabaya Akhmad Suharto said that this social initiative by students was carried out from July 30 to August 12, 2021 in the school.
"So initially, the idea of Gotong Royong Sekolah Peduli Suroboyo program was from all students, and then supported by the Education Office. Basically, (it is focused on) how to make Surabaya recover and rise up fast, like it used to be," Suharto remarked.
Not just the middle school students, elementary school students in Surabaya also participated in the social initiative, as seen at Airlangga State Elementary School 1. From August 2, 2021, students came to school with parents or guardians to donate instant noodles, cooking oil, sugar, or rice.
One by one, the students arrived in the school yard with their donations, and they placed them into meticulously arranged boxes.
The Principal of Airlangga State Middle School 1 Surabaya, Materai Faridhin, said that initially, the school issued a circular through a Whatsapp group that the school was collecting aid from children who wanted to donate to Surabaya Calling. There was a good response from parents, he added.
After all the items were collected, the aid was handed over to the Surabaya City government through the Principal's Working Group Activities (K3S), he informed.
Faridhin said he hoped the initiative would raise the students' awareness and empathy towards their community from an early age. Especially at the present time, when people are affected by COVID-19.
Tri Aji Nugroho from the Surabaya City Education Office opined that students in Surabaya were the ones who actually initiated the social movement to assist people in need.
This movement can be seen as the realization of high empathy and sensitivity towards social issues, he remarked. He deemed it an extraordinary movement.
"We hope that all schools, both public and private schools, will be moved (into helping others). Not only students, but also teachers or anyone else," he added.
Handing out aid
After all the donations were collected, elementary and middle schoolers participating in the Gotong Royong Sekolah Peduli Suroboyo program handed out the collected assistance at the Surabaya City Hall on August 13, 2021 to fellow students who had lost their parents to COVID-19.
The aid comprised 134.5 tons of rice, 35,628 liters of cooking oil, 42.7 tons of sugar, and 11,401 boxes of instant noodles. They also gave cash assistance amounting up to Rp1,047,522,500 (around US$72 thousand).
Chairman of the Surabaya Student Organization, Gita, expressed her gratitude to all students who had participated and contributed to the program.
She said she hoped that the assistance could immediately be received by their friends and people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, she hoped that the initiative could push or encourage others to do the same.
"If students in Surabaya can do it, then other residents of Surabaya can also do the same initiative," she remarked.
The transfer process was witnessed directly by Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahhyadi and Surabaya regional leadership coordination forum (Forkompinda).
The Mayor said he was amazed and touched by the students' initiative. The act could serve as a motivation for affluent people to share with those who are in need of help, he added.
The initiative by students is a real example for everyone to follow, he remarked. Even school kids could help Surabaya with a total that reached beyond Rp1 billion (around US$72 thousand).
"This is what amazed and touched me. Forkompinda whispered to me, if we wanted to study or ask, disregard who is going to be the teacher, but pay attention to what they have done," he said.
He expressed his immense gratitude to teachers who encouraged their students to empathize with others. Without the guidance of teachers and the help from the Surabaya Education Office, the program could not have seen such success, he added.
The lesson that can be taken from the event is that helping others is a noble thing to do, even if what one gives is not much, he said. The spirit to stay solid together will form great, collective strength, he added.
The money collected by the students came from the spirit of working together and the patience to gather the aid little by little, he observed. Everything can be great when it is done in a large group, he said.
May this serve as a great example for students in other regions, he added.
Editor : Didik Kusbiantoro
COPYRIGHT © ANTARA News Jawa Timur 2021