On Sunday, May 27^th 2018 in Philanthropy Building Dompet Dhuafa, has been launched an initiative to help some umrah applicants who are unable to go because of the problematic travel agency. According to YLKI, since mid of May 2017, they have been received 22 thousand reports from applicant who failed to go Umrah from various travel agencies. Furthermore, there are more applicants who still hasn’t reported their case. This initiative was initiated by Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia (YLKI) and Filantropi Indonesia (FI) partnered with with Dompet Dhuafa (DD) Rumah Zakat (RZ) and FOZ (Forum Zakat), As an executive director of Filantropi Indonesia, Hamid Abidin stated that this partnership will not take the role of the country and travel agencies.

Furthermore, Erna Witoelar as the founder of YLKI and the chairman of steering committee of FI, predicted that this partnership will work together for eight months and will be managed transparently and accountably. Erna Witoelar confidents that this partnership will succeed, considering the potential of zakat in Indonesia is big that it can reaches the 200 trillion rupiah. There are three main objectives in this partnership which are to push the support from people, to help the victim of umrah’s applicant, and to educate people so that they will not experience the same thing. Also, to do advocacy so that the government will also take action in this matter.

According to YLKI which represented by Tulus Abadi, in relation to this matter, YLKI has been assisting the victim of umrah’s applicant by doing a mediation with the ministry of religion and travel agency, filed a lawsuit to the police, and religious court. The most important thing is how to claim back the rights of the victim. YLKI disagree with Ditjen Haji who stated that this case is a civil case between a travel agency and its consumer. But this is also because the government has issued a permission for the travel agency. It’s important to highlight how the monitoring that has been conducted by the country towards the travel agencies for Umrah. Tulus added that the majority of the victim is people from a village so it would be impossible for them to do an early investigation or monitoring towards the travel agencies.

As an institution of amil zakat (LAZ), RZ, DD, and FOZ will wholeheartedly support the initiative for this partnership, Arif Rahman from FOZ stated that the number for philanthropy activity in Ramadhan will be high, therefore this can be an appropriate momentum to promote this initiative. FOZ which has 253 members of LAZ in all over Indonesia will ask for the members to support through information dissemination as well as encourage the members to do a donation through various fundraising channel.

Hamid Abidin underlines that this partnership with Filantropi will send off 99 victims. The participants have been decided so there will be no open recruitment. Those participants who are prioritized are mostly the dhuafa, those who haven’t been to go to Makkah, and elderly people. We all hope that next time, the government will be able to support umrah pilgrim’s applicant and also will be able to create a better system.

For further information about Filantropi Indonesia's activities and updates, you can contact Filantropi Indonesia through our email info@filantropi.or.id