Thread: White women saving Indonesia

When borders started closing between Australia and Indonesia to contain the spread of coronavirus, Amanda Rialdi's family and friends kept telling her to come back to Australia.

"Bali is my home and for me it was never an option to leave," she told the ABC.

Amanda is one of many Australians who have chosen to stay behind in their new home, despite Indonesia fast becoming a coronavirus hotspot as the country's death rate surpassed other nations in the region.
"I honestly couldn't sleep wondering how people would get by now with no income," said Amanda, who has been living in Bali for the past seven years.

Some Australian expats have chosen to stay behind in their new homes and give back to people who have lost their livelihoods.(Supplied)The country's hospitals are overwhelmed with just four doctors and 12 hospital beds per 1,000 people, exacerbated by a severe shortage of ventilators.
Millions of Indonesia's 273 million people are no longer employed and many have been left wondering where their next meal will come from.

For Amanda, what started as a request to friends and family for a $1.50 donation to hand out individual meals to people on the streets, has now grown into a full-time job.


Australians have been sending packages of food and necessities to the people who help them during holidays in Bali.(Supplied)"We have now given over 3,000 meals to metro areas and villages [and] about 4,000 masks … I would say we have helped around 5,000 people so far, but those figures could be much higher," she said.

"We [also] find where the needy live and bring them basic care drops of rice, eggs and vegetables, which can last them up to one month."

Amanda and fellow Aussie expat Ellie Gee, who both moved to Bali to get married to their husbands and are now both raising families, have set up a Facebook group called Let's Help Bali (COVID-19).
The group gathers donations and connects Australians with their "Bali families" — the people who drive and take care of them during their repeated travels to the island — and now has nearly 5,000 members.
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Amanda and her team deliver goods to families every day."The first week or two was a learning curve so I was up at 4:00am and going to bed at 1:00am but now we have more help … But Ellie and I spend at least 15 hours a day ourselves dedicated to organising drops, orders, messages," Amanda said.
"We make no profits from these but it's keeping some people afloat … I'm crying happy tears every day."


Supplies like vegetable, rice and eggs can sustain a family for a month.(Supplied)The delivery drivers are unemployed tour guides and hotel workers, and the delivery fees go straight to their pockets as well as friends and families who help.
The food is also sourced from local street vendors.
For the island of Bali, where 70 per cent of the population relies on tourism for a living, coronavirus has hit hard with domestic and international travel at a standstill.
A 'moral obligation' to help

Tara and her family have been doing what they can to help their neighbours.(Supplied)In the city of Jogja, in Java, Melbourne mother Tara McGowan told the ABC people are struggling to find healthy food as many restaurants have shut their doors.
"I feel like [while] I'm an Australian living in Indonesia … I'm also very connected to the people here [because] I live in the village," she said.
What happens to Bali when tourists leave?




The dramatic 95 per cent drop in international tourists arriving in Bali affects millions of its residents who have relied on the industry for generations.
Read more

Tara, who is an English teacher at the National University of Jogja, has lived in the city since 2006 and married her Indonesian husband, a police officer, in 2014.
She said they feel lucky to still have an income, but can't say the same about others around them.
The couple decided to do what they could to support local businesses by handing out healthy meals to people in need and to volunteers making much-needed personal protective equipment for medics.
"I wanted to do something but I didn't really have a lot of money … I also feel like [it's] my moral obligation [to help]," Tara said.
She said many people have no money to buy food and are being forced to open up tabs with local street vendors, who they will pay back later, for their daily needs.

"We can see a lot of our neighbours struggling, a lot have had their electricity turned off," she said.

"In Indonesia, because they don't have the safety net that they have in Australia, people are just working so hard just to make 20,000 rupiahs ($2) a day."
Indonesia tops global list for helping others



The act of working together and giving back, known as "gotong-royong", is a part of the Indonesian psyche.(Supplied)According to Reuters, more than 2,200 Indonesians have died of coronavirus, a much higher figure than the current death toll of 784 recorded by Johns Hopkins University.
At least 26 doctors are among those to have died of the virus — an overrepresentation of deaths in the known total tally.
Why is Indonesia's COVID-19 death rate so high?




Indonesia's rate of testing for COVID-19 — among the lowest in the world — means only a few thousand tests have been done for an entire population of 270 million people.
Read more

President Joko Widodo's Government has been criticised for its slow response, with the country claiming zero cases in early March and attributing its "luck" to prayers.
Despite the alarming figures, a sense of community solidarity known as "gotong-royong" remains strong, especially for those who are disillusioned by the Government and feel the need to take on the responsibility of helping others.
A comparative global study by London think tank Legatum Institute in 2019 placed Indonesia in the top five for acts of civic participation, such as volunteering, in its social capital index.

Them 2 Sheila's should be made to wear them masks all the time. Even after-the virus has been eradicated.