Social Affairs Minister Risma Partners with UNESA to Handle Children and Disability Issues

SURABAYA (May 19, 2023) - Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) is collaborating with the State University of Surabaya (UNESA) to handle disabilities and underprivileged children. The collaboration is expected to accelerate the government's steps to fulfill the rights of people with disabilities.

According to the Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini, handling disabilities is quite difficult, in addition to the need for capacity building, also because of the complexity of the problems that must be faced.

An equally complex challenge is handling underprivileged children. Therefore, in this collaboration, these two agendas will be a priority in the collaboration between the two agencies.

"Now at the Ministry of Social Affairs, the most difficult thing is handling people with disabilities. That is the most difficult because firstly, my knowledge about it is very limited," said Risma, Friday (5/19/2023).

In addition to disabilities, this collaboration also prioritizes underprivileged children. Moreover, the education of children who are hampered by several things.

"Earlier we talked about underprivileged children. Regarding education, we will create a parenting module for children with disabilities, we will have an MoU from there," said Risma.

"Because I have been a minister for more than 2 years, there have been many cases, especially children with disabilities who have experienced rape. So, we will create a parenting module to handle children with disabilities, supervision, for parents, (and) all members of society," she added.

According to Risma, with this collaboration, it is hoped that it can complement each other to overcome obstacles for people with disabilities and the education of underprivileged children, which is due to the economy.

"Because my knowledge is lacking, I met with the rector of UNESA to help us handle children with disabilities. It turns out that at Unesa there is a rectorate to handle disabilities. We will continue this MoU," said Risma.

For Social Affairs Minister Risma, the first urgent thing is to create parenting guidelines for parents of children with disabilities.

Then, at one time, Social Affairs Minister Risma visited Papua, seeing the backwardness of education there due to distance problems.

"I will also talk to the Chancellor, so I went to Asmat Papua and other areas, they all asked for education for their children. I don't know what it will be like. I asked the regent, no one could," she said.

Meanwhile, UNESA Chancellor, Nurhasan welcomed the cooperation offered to Unesa, especially for the issue of disability which is a special advantage on this campus.

"So, one of UNESA's advantages is disability and how we have started to side with them. As the Minister asked, we will formulate the issue of people with disabilities so that they improve their competencies, educate their families, educate the community and the environment so that they can accept children with disabilities. We prepare the formula together with the direction of the Minister," he said.

Also present were UNESA Chancellor Prof. Dr. Nurhasan, M.Kes, MWA Chair Prof. Dr. Haris Supratno, SAU Chair Prof. Dr. H. Setya Yuwana, M.A, the Special Advisor to the Minister (SKM) in the field of Communication and Mass Media Don Rozano Sigit Prakoeswa, SKM in the field of Empowerment and Handling of the Poor Doddi Madya Judanto, SKM in the field of Human Resource Development and Ministry Programs Suhadi Lili, UNESA Vice Chancellors and UNESA Academic Community.