One of the biggest disasters in Indonesia was the forest fire in Sumatra and Borneo Island which burned more than 850 thousand hectares of forest, back in September 2019.
The fire generated haze and produced extremely toxic air pollution which covered not only the two large islands themselves, but also the neighbouring countries.
In Riau—one of the provinces in Sumatra that was heavily affected by the disaster—the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 259 points, which had already been considered inadequate for breathing. While in Palangkaraya, Central Borneo, the AQI had reached 399 points, causing the air to be considered very dangerous for breathing.
Thousands of people have been reported to have contracted acute respiratory sickness and many schools have been forced to shut down due to the disaster.
We believe it is our responsibility to take part in providing support for such national urgency. So we decided to hold a fundraising effort through our instagram account.
Partnered with Dompet Dhuafa—one of the major charity institutions in Indonesia, we invited our employees and people out there to donate for those who were still trying to survive in the midst of the thick haze.
We managed to raise 16.944.296 rupiahs, with 24slides doubling the total amount to 33.852.027 rupiahs. Our donation was directed towards purchasing breathing masks for civilians (which has become extremely scarce due to the calamity), portable oxygen tubes, fire extinguishers, and also covered some of the medical team costs needed for the victims.
In addition, donations were also used to build safe schools for students whose school activities stopped operating due to the forest fire. We hope that they will now be able to study peacefully regardless the unconducive situation around them.
We hope our efforts will be able to ease their suffering and help them through the calamity.