Jakarta’s Kampungs Join Community Movement to Fight Covid-19

KOMPAS/LARASWATI ARIADNE ANWAR

ILLUSTRATION: Motorists crossing the street at RW 03 Pondok Labu Urban Village, Cilandak, South Jakarta, Thursday (21/1/2021).

Several kampungs in Jakarta have been assigned as Kampung Tangguh Jaya, a community-based movement formed to cope with Covid-19. Residents are optimistic that the movement, initiated by the Jakarta Police, will run well.

On Thursday (21/1/2021), Mahmudi, a member of the community disaster volunteers looked quite busy sweeping the office of the RW 003 community unit in Pondok Labu subdistrict, Cilandak, South Jakarta. Five people were sleeping in one of the rooms in the RW office.

"This is an emergency isolation room. Previously, no one used it because all people who tested positive for Covid-19 were immediately taken to a nearby Puskesmas (community health center) or hospital. Some isolated at their own home,” he said.

Outside the RW 003 office, there is a banner that reads "Kampung Tangguh Jaya" (KTJ), a community-based movement initiated by the Jakarta Police to help handle Covid-19. The RW 003 community unit neighborhood, which consists of 14 neighborhood units (RTs) and 6,000 families, was inaugurated as part of the KTJ movement in mid-December 2020.

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This program was initiated by the head of the Jakarta Police, Inspector General M Fadil Imran. Previously, when he was assigned as the head of East Java Police, he had a similar program called Kampung Tangguh Semeru. Kampung tangguh literally means a tough kampung.

In addition to overcoming the spread of Covid-19, this program also aims to change people\'s perceptions so that they are not afraid to be vaccinated and undergo various tests as part of the program to trace the people infected with the virus. At present, there are 203 KTJs in Jakarta.

Before becoming a KTJ, RW 003 was among the best RWs in Pondok Labu in coping with Covid-19. According to Mahmudi, the residents in the community mostly play active part in the RW’s social activities.

This makes the residents accustomed to being prepared for disasters and each RT head has a concrete program to deal with it.

There are six RTs in the RW 003 which always get flooded every rainy season. This makes the residents accustomed to being prepared for disasters and each RT head has a concrete program to deal with it.

"We have a number of volunteers to help handle jumantik (mosquito larva monitors to prevent dengue fever) in every RT. Since the beginning of the pandemic, these jumantik volunteers have been involved in a campaign to promote the use of health protocols, "said Mahmudi.

Covid-19 prevention messages are also conveyed through Family Welfare Empowerment and community health post (Posyandu).

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Residents passing by in the RW 003 are required to wear masks, including street vendors. At each RW entry, there are volunteers assigned to remind residents and outsiders to wear their masks. Food stalls are still allowed to open but the food must be taken home.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Task Force officers of RW 003 Pondok Labu Village sprayed disinfectant on the bed used for self-isolation at the Sasana Krida Karang Taruna Building, on Jalan Bango III, Pondok Labu, South Jakarta, on Tuesday (19/1/2021).

The RW task force officers also routinely visit the houses of residents who are undergoing independent isolation. They deliver food three times a day. The secretary of the RW 003 in Pondok Labu, Moch Yahya, said that the RW used contribution from the residents to buy the food for those who conducted independent isolation. The RW has also asked for additional funds from the Jakarta Social Office.

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Several other community units in South Jakarta are also active in halting the spread of Covid-19. A street vendor named Ngatno who sell meatball in the RW 002 community unit in the National Polices Mobile Brigade (Brimob) dormitory complex, Pejaten Barat, Pasar Minggu, raised his mask to cover his nose and mouth when the buyer came.

"It took me several months to get used in wearing a mask. RT / RW officers go around every day and warn the people when they take off their masks,”he said.

They are mostly members of the police and their families

The RW 002 of the Brimob Dormitory complex has been also included in the KTJ pilot project. The head of RW 002, Badarun, explained that his RW comprised of seven RTs and 449 families or 1,386 residents. They are mostly members of the police and their families. " At the beginning, it was difficult to ask the people to wear a mask and keep a distance," he said.

KOMPAS/LARASWATI ARIADNE ANWAR

Visitors to Ngatno\'s meatball shop wore masks, at RW 02 Brimob Complex Pejaten Barat, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta on Thursday (21/1/2021).

Badarun said the RW 002 administration had provided a transitional isolation room for Covid-19 positive patients before being referred to hospitals or government isolation facilities. This idea emerged after the RW was named as one the KTJ members. The transitional isolation room was opened because many residents could not carry out isolation properly at their homes.

Although it has produced good results, according to him, many RWs are still reluctant to join the KTJ movement. In the Brimob dormitory complex, for example, only RW 001 and RW 002 neighborhood units join the KTJ. RWs or other RTs are not yet interested in becoming part of the KTJ.

Promotion

Komalawaty, a KTJ volunteer at the RT 015 RW 005, Penggilingan Village, Cakung, East Jakarta has a different story. In RT 015 neighborhood unit, the Covid-19 task force actively promotes the importance of rapid tests or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests to the residents. She said that in the past many residents refused to be tested.

"People are afraid that if they test positive, they will be separated from their family," she said.

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As the solution, the task force involves RT and RW administrations to take care the daily needs of the families undergoing independent isolation. Seeing the success of RT 015 in running the KTJ programs, residents in other RTs are now willing to take a rapid or swab test.

KOMPAS/LARASWATI ARIADNE ANWAR

A member of the Covid-19 task force at RW 02 Brimob Dormitory Complex in West Pejaten, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, Thursday (21/1/2021), monitors a positive Covid-19 patient who is undergoing isolation in a special room provided by RW 02 .

University of Indonesia health anthropologist Vita Priantina Dewi, some time ago, said that social movement such as KTJ were good examples in involving residents in coping with Covid-19. However, such initiatives should be promoted so that many other communities take part in the program.

"There must be an organic method in promoting the movement. Formal institutions should act as mediators so that other communities can see the real benefits of this initiative and then follow it, "said Vita.

(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi).