Social media showed its true power in the act of solidarity for 2.5-year-old Achmad Fariz Taufik, the son of former national weightlifter Winarni, 42, who was born with esophageal atresia.
Winarni was overcome with emotion when she learned that so many people want to help her son, Fariz, who was born with a congenitally interrupted esophagus that required expensive surgery to correct.
“Three days ago, I could not even buy milk for Fariz. I had planned to sell my house to get the money for his surgery. It’s just so sudden that I found out that so many people want to help me and my son to get his operation as soon as possible,” she said on Saturday (28/7/2018).
Winarni was the 1997 world champion in women’s weightlifting, and won bronze for Indonesia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The Sydney Olympics was the last time she was in the media spotlight, before news spread last month about her son’s condition. Apart from esophageal atresia, Fariz also suffers from heart and lung defects. Because of her family’s financial hardship, it was difficult for Winarni to pay for Fariz’s medicines.
News of Fariz’s condition and Winarni’s financial straits went viral after writer and consultant Maman Suherman shared the Kompas news article, “Former Weightlifting World Champion Struggles for Son’s Health”, on his Twitter account on Sunday morning (29/7).
Maman tweeted, “Mr President @jokowi, Mr Youth and Sports Minister @KEMENPORA_RI, can you help this former world champion and 2000 Sydney Olympic bronze medalist? Thank you. @hariankompas”, referencing the official Twitter handle for the President, the youth and sports ministry and Kompas.
By Wednesday, Maman’s tweet had been retweeted 2,351 times, liked 1,205 times and garnered positive responses across cyberspace. Maman responded to all comments from users, some of who wanted to send a donation to Winarni.
For instance, @yayasunarya wrote: “I feel her sadness. It is because of esophageal atresia that my child lived only 25 days, Kang [brother]”. Meanwhile, @Hazeskw wrote: “I may be poor but I want to donate what I can because of her service [to the nation],” and @peykurniawan wrote, “Kang, you can start a fund-raiser at @kitabisa.com. It may take a while if we wait for the government to respond.”
Seeing the positive responses, at 3:26 p.m. on Sunday, Maman started an online fund-raiser for Winarni at https://kitabisa.com/atletangkatbesi.
In the first three hours, the account raised Rp 10 million (US$692.21). The next day, several national TV stations covered a live broadcast interviewing Maman and Winarni. At 6:22 a.m. on Monday, the online fund-raiser had raised Rp 19,308,883 and by 5:46 p.m., donations totaled Rp 91,874,830. The fund-raising effort had raised more than Rp 100 million in less than two days.
At the time of this writing at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the account had raised Rp 191,311,791, or 64 percent of the Rp 300 million target.
The case shows that social media has the power to mobilize people to do good. “So far, social media is often identified with fake news and hate speech. However, we can see from this online fund-raising initiative for Winarni that social media can also be used to help one another,” said Maman.
Car manufacturer PT Toyota Astra Motor donated Rp 80 million to Winarni’s fund-raiser from auctioning Kompas photojournalist Yuniadhi Agung’s photograph, “Ajang Pacu Jawi” (Bull Race), on Tuesday (31/7) evening, during opening day of the Kompas Photography Festival (FFK) at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta. Tycoon Dato’ Sri Tahir of the Mayapada Group also donated Rp 50 million. The FFK has set up a donation box until the closing day of the festival on Sunday (5/8), and has already collected Rp 130 million in donations for Winarni.
Maman said that the state should be present in ensuring the welfare of professional athletes, especially ahead of hosting the 2018 Asian Games. “We are often focused on the athletes’ achievements in competitions. However, once the competitions are over, we often forget about them. This is where the state should [step in],” said Maman, who is also the literacy ambassador of the University of Indonesia Alumni Association (Iluni UI) as well as the Education and Culture Ministry. (ABK)
