PPIH Ensures Prospective Hajj Disabilities Get Assistance During Worship In Arafah, Muzdalifah To Mina

One of the portraits of Indonesian pilgrims going to Raudhoh, at the Prophet's Mosque, Medina. (ANTARA-Nur Istibsaroh)

JAKARTA - Hajj Organizing Officers (PPIH) ensure that prospective pilgrims with disabilities get companion services during worship in Arafah, Muzdalifah, and Mina (Armuzna) or the community.

"For pilgrims who really need it, for example those who can't see (tuananetra), a companion is needed," said Head of Services for Elderly Congregations and Manpower Area Disabilities (Dannyer) Medina Arif Nurrawi, in Medina, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 15, confiscated by Antara.

According to Arif, assistants for the disabled pilgrims may come from the family, relatives and from the congregation's flying group (kloter). So far, his party has socialized disability companions to each group.

"We urge families or groups to help each other as a form of concern for fellow congregations," he said.

Currently, continued Arif, his party is still collecting data on the number of people with disabilities. According to him, the data will serve as the basis for officers in Armuzna.

"We are still collecting data on how many pilgrims are disabled or have special needs. We don't want the data to change later because some data from the country still needs validation again. This is for later purposes in Armuzna," he said.

In addition, continued Arif, his party has also prepared wheelchairs for elderly pilgrims and special needs.

Arif said the effort was part of the service provided to pilgrims according to orders from the Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas.

"The theme of organizing this year's Hajj is elderly and fair. The first is a priority on how to prioritize, serve, and protect the pilgrims more specifically for the elderly," he said.

Arif said the number of elderly pilgrims in the 1444 H/2023 M Hajj pilgrimage was one-third of the regular pilgrims or around 66,943 people, so that the activities of the pilgrims must really be monitored by all Hajj officers from all services.

"So, we from the elderly service officers coordinate actively, both in theker and in the sector, especially flying group (cluter) devices, the head of the group, supervisors, and health workers that we have the same task to prioritize and protect the elderly", he said.

Based on data from the Integrated Hajj Information and Computerization System (Siskohat) on Thursday at 10.30 Saudi Arabia time, it is 402 groups with 152,852 prospective Hajj candidates and 46,152 elderly people.