Getting Social Assistance from the President, Residents: Extending Life

JAKARTA (May 4th, 2020) – “Alhamdulillah, I was helped by the assistance from the President. As a citizen, I am grateful for the assistance to prolong my life, I can cook at home again,” said Agus Suwandi (33), a resident of RW 02 Kelurahan Lagoa, Kecamatan Koja, North Jakarta.

He said that in one house there are eight families, even though he only received 2 packages of basic food, he did not complain and shared it with other family members.

“Yes, we are sharing, if we get 2 or 3 packages, we share, we cook together, so whoever cooks, we will share the food,” he said.

Living in a house with eight families did not make Agus and his wife lose their way of being grateful. Even though he lost his job due to COVID-19, he finds a way to survive for a bowl of rice.

“Alhamdulillah, in this COVID-19 situation, I am still lucky, there are still people who needs our service, for example, the shop owner asked us to shop for their stall, we went to buy it, and got the fee for the service. Alhamdulilah, there is still luck,” he told the story, accompanied by his wife.

Agus and his neighbors at RW 02 Kelurahan Lagoa, North Jakarta today had their turn to receive 602 basic food packages. The distribution was symbolically carried out by the Director General of Social Protection and Security of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Pepen Nazaruddin.

“I came as instructed by the Minister of Social Affairs to go to the location and ensure that all distribution of phase 1 of the President’s assistance for basic food runs smoothly. I saw that the contents of the basic food packages were complete, then according to Pak RW, the distribution was smooth,” said Pepen.

Pepen asked the RT/RW administrator to manage the distribution process properly so that it would not cause a polemic due to overlapping recipients, “Even if there are one or two overlaps, then the RT/RW will resolve them so that everyone can get benefits,” he advised.

As a concrete step to improve the distribution of basic food in the second phase, Pepen said that the Ministry of Social Affairs will evaluate the implementation of the first phase.

“Later we will evaluate, tomorrow we will hold a video conference (online meeting) with the Provincial Government of DKI and the Coordinating Ministry for PMK, especially about the data. Therefore, in the second phase, maybe there will be policies that we will take based on the experience of this first phase,” explained the man with glasses.