Social Minister Prepares Rp24 Billion For Orphans Due To COVID-19

JEMBER - Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini said that her party has prepared a budget of Rp24 billion for orphans because their parents died due to COVID-19.

"It is not perfect. We are trying to collect from the existing budgets, so we allocated a budget of Rp24 billion for orphans due to COVID-19," she said during a visit to Jember Regency, East Java, quoted by Antara, Saturday, August 28.

Social Minister Risma said that her party was still trying to collect data from the regions for children who suddenly became orphans due to COVID-19 along with many children becoming orphans after their parents died from COVID-19.

"The Rp24 billion fund will be used to help as many as 10,000 children, which are prioritized for orphans due to COVID-19," she said.

The Minister of Social Affairs hopes that thousands of orphans will receive assistance by 2022, except for those who are included in the Family Hope Program (PKH) because in this assistance there is assistance for their children.

The former mayor of Surabaya also visited three orphans and gave them motivation to stay enthusiastic in life.

"I live with 70 orphans, some are generals, some are Presidential Security Forces (Paspampres), there are doctors, there are engineers. For that, you must not give up," said Risma to the orphans.

Risma also checked the data on the distribution of social assistance with the banking system at the Rambi Puji District Office, then distributed social rehabilitation assistance (attention) assistance, namely entrepreneurship assistance, basic needs assistance for food packages, and assistance for orphans due to COVID-19, as well as assistance for disabilities.

"You are now Mrs. Risma's children. Don't be discouraged, you must be able, you must be able to succeed even though your father is not around, so you have to stay in school," she said.