4 Philanthropic Issues Growing In Indonesia, Starting From Poverty To Potential Disasters

Illustration of poor people occupying urban riverbanks. (AMONG)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Zakat Forum (FoZ), Bambang Suherman assesses poverty as one of the growing issues of philanthropic institutions in Indonesia.

"There are four issues that make philanthropy in Indonesia grow, first is poverty," he said in a seminar themed "Can Islamic Philanthropy Still Be Trustworthy?" in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Thursday, July 14.

He said, poverty is indeed a part of the social construction of society in Indonesia. Therefore, there must be someone who takes on the role to help.

"From here comes philanthropic activities. So one of the issues of philanthropy in Indonesia because there is always a theme about poverty," he said.

The second issue, he said, was related to disasters. Indonesia, which is in the ring of fire or the Pacific Ring of Fire, opens up opportunities for disasters to occur.

"Disasters make people who have assets lose assets, people who have income will also lose their income, meaning disasters will also produce new cases of poverty, then that is philanthropy in managing disasters," he explained.

The third issue, he added, is social conflict. According to him, conflicts that involve many parties have a negative impact on the wider community which ultimately contributes to creating new poverty.

And the fourth issue, said Bambang, is the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has triggered philanthropic institutions in Indonesia to bloom.

"Pandemics are also part of the dynamics that create poverty," he said.

On the same occasion, Head of the Sub-Directorate of Accreditation and Audit of Zakat Institutions, Directorate of Zakat Empowerment and Waqf of the Ministry of Religion, Muhibuddin encouraged all Islamic philanthropic institutions to improve the competence of their amil (zakat managers) so that they remain trusted by the community.

"The competence of amil, this amil capacity will determine how our zakat management organization is better," he said.