A Number Of Volunteers Resign Due To Disappointment, The COVID-19 Task Force: We Capture Their Aspirations

JAKARTA - Head of the Covid-19 Volunteer Coordination Task Force (Satgas), Andre Rahadian, said that his party did not know about the return of volunteer attributes such as vests and IDs by a number of people at The Media Hotel, Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta. This location is the headquarters for the COVID-19 Task Force volunteers.

However, Adre understands that if there are volunteers who carry out the return action as a sign of their resignation and think that this action is a form of aspirations of some volunteers.

"We accept this as a form of appreciation from some volunteers. We accommodate these aspirations," said Andre in a written statement to reporters, Thursday, November 19.

He believes they will continue to work to assist the government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Because, once a volunteer, he continued, will still be a volunteer.

"In the hearts of the volunteers, they are still volunteers. Moreover, so far it has been proven that the work of volunteers is able to help residents who are experiencing difficult times during this corona virus outbreak," he said.

Meanwhile, regarding the handling of COVID-19, Andre said, his party held training activities to invite people to make behavior changes in 7 priority provinces by involving 10,000 volunteers.

The seven priority provinces he means are DKI Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Central Java, South Sulawesi, North Sumatra and Papua.

This training was deemed important because changing behavior in the community was key in preventing the spread of COVID-19 before a vaccine was introduced. Moreover, volunteering with all community members is an important part of behavior change.

In addition, Andre also appealed to all volunteers and community components everywhere to work together to remind each other and increase discipline in carrying out health protocols, namely wearing masks, maintaining distance and avoiding crowds and washing hands with soap with running water.

Previously, dozens of COVID-19 Task Force volunteers resigned as a manifestation of their disappointment over the provision of mask assistance by the COVID-19 Task Force when the wedding ceremony for the daughter of the High Imam of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) Rizieq Shihab, Najwa Shihab and Maulid Nabi took place.

Dozens of volunteers symbolically stated that they were withdrawing from their duties by returning the brown volunteer vests in front of The Media Hotel, Jalan Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta, which became the office of the COVID-19 Task Force volunteers.

"We on behalf of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Volunteers who joined voluntarily on behalf of humanity convey our attitude towards the incident of giving 20 thousand masks and hand sanitizers by the COVID-19 Task Force at the wedding of Habib Rizieq's daughter," said the Jabodetabek COVID-19 Task Force Volunteer Coordinator, Abdul Mupid in front of The Media Hotel, Thursday, 19 November.

They said the giving of masks caused protests not only in the community, but also by volunteers.

Not only that, these volunteers said that what the COVID-19 Task Force was doing was a form of indifference to those who have struggled amid the pandemic for eight months.

After returning the volunteer vests, they also urged the Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force Doni Monardo and his staff to resign from their posts. In addition, they also expressed their distrust of the COVID-19 Task Force.

Even though they have withdrawn from the volunteer activities of the COVID-19 Task Force, they emphasized that they will continue to move to carry out humanitarian work amid the pandemic.

"We will remain committed to continuing activities as volunteers at the institution and in our own ways," said Abdul.