Forty seven organisations, two social change tech startups and two private sector companies have come together to raise awareness of volunteerism, launching Indonesia’s first ever National Volunteer Month. Coinciding with World Volunteer Day on 5^th December, National Volunteer Month will take place from 5 December 2016 to 20 December 2016, combining the dynamism of digital awareness with creative offline activities for the public to take part in.

This first – of – its – kind initiative is jointly organised by Team Aksi Baik, a collective of 2 social – good startups (Campaign.com and Indorelawan.org) with community group Indonesian Future Leaders (IFL).

Ilman Dzikri, Programme Manager of IFL said “Our aim in co – initiating this event is to invite more youths to be involved in volunteering activities and hopefully they can view it as an additional option for self – development.” “As a country Founded on values of mutual cooperation, volunteerism is a vital key to revitalizing the values of modern times.” Added Marsya Anggia Nashahta, Director for Indorelawan.org

The entire Volunteer Month is supported by Kemenpora, Kemdikbud, Kemensos and United Nations Volunteers Programme Indonesia (UNV). “Volunteers are vital in engaging people to be involved with the various 17 sustainable development goals at a community level. They are the indispensable bridge between the community groups and public as their contributions are critical in meeting these goals for Indonesia,” a representative from UNV Indonesia said.

During an online survey done by over 3000 respondents in Indonesia in November 2016, one of the common cited reasons why people do not volunteer their time was that it was hard to find relevant information about the respective organisations and their activities. To add to that difficulty, a lot of respondents feel that they do not have the appropriate expertise or skills when it came to volunteering.

To address these concerns and more, during this Volunteer Month the public are encouraged to visit a central information website (http://bulanrelawannasional.com/) to find out more about volunteerism and choose a whole range of activities that they can volunteer in during this month.

Complementing it, the public are asked to sign an online pledge on change.org (http://change.org/bulanrelawannasional) to use their time for the create bigger social good.

A social media campaign, targeted at youths, have also been rolled aout by Campaign.com (http://www.campaign.com/10JamAksiBaik), encouraging them to share their ideas on what they will do with 10 hours in 2017 for social change with the hashtag #10JamAksiBaik.

“This is a much needed step forward with tech – startups and community groups coming together to push for a greater involvement and celebrate contributions by volunteers here in Indonesia. It is a very good example of what can be achieved if there is equal partnerships made between the private and public sector of society,” said Benjamin Xue, Chief Engagement Officer of Campaign.com

To cap off the exciting Volunteer Month, a Volunteer Festival will be held later in December. The event will be a mix of educational talks, an award ceremony and exciting booth spaces involving various community organisations. More details of the event will be shared with the public in the coming days.

To support National Volunteer Month:

Website: http://bulanrelawannasional.com/

Online pledge: http://change.org/bulanrelawannasional

Campaign Page: http://www.campaign.com/10JamAksiBaik

Officiall Hashtag: #BulanRelawanNasional #10JamAksiBaik