Jakarta — Amid the COVID-19 epidemic, many social organizations are running various philanthropic and caring programs for others, directly or indirectly. Start from fundraising, volunteer recruitment in program management and a variety of collaborations between multi-sectors that were established as an emergency response to the outbreak.

This is what underlies an online meeting by The Indonesia Philanthropy Association, together with members and partners using the video conference application (Zoom Meeting) on April 2, 2020, which is supported by ICTHelp. The online meeting discussed how to strengthen coordination as well as synergy between philanthropic institutions and the government and other sectors in response to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social impact of it. Furthermore, some members and partners are given the opportunity to the extent the organization’s emergency response and cooperation responses can be delivered, either through presentations or written in the online application.

During the meeting, the enthusiasm of the members and partners was high and the presentation of the program initiatives provided was innovative, inspiring each other, both in the social impact and the coverage area of ​​the beneficiaries. The members and partners become an active role in collaborating and assisting the government or other sectors such as The National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) or The Regency Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BPBD), COVID-19 referral hospitals, private companies, independent institutions, and others.

However, in this 2-hour discussion, through The Indonesia Philanthropy Association research and exposure of members and partners found several difficulties such as lack of social security for volunteers, distribution of donations that tend to accumulate in an area, the difficulty of access to health service sets and public awareness of the importance of hygiene is still low. These factors can assess how and what extent Indonesia’s alertness to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, the difficulties were found can have solutions and concrete steps so that the collected concerns can be directed.