gender equality

The Independent Network of Volunteers Foundation or JaRI (Jaringan Relawan Independen) was initially established in 1998 by people with the professions of doctors, psychologists, and other social backgrounds who wanted to help communities and the nation in creating a healthy and peaceful social environment.

During the “reformation struggle” of1997-1998 a group of professionals in Bandung supported the university students that were harassed by the military regime. This group organized first aid trainings on campuses, and smuggled out some of the students who needed hospital care. When the reformation took place and the students were safe, this group decided to continue the struggle against violence. JaRI was established in February 1998, and specifically focussed to fight Violence against Women and Children.

The first activity was to organize a national seminar on what should be done for rape victims. This was an expression of anger after the May 1998 tragedy that until today has still not been clearly explained and the investigation is stalled. The sexual violence was against about 152 victims in Jakarta and a total of 168 in other cities (Medan, Yogya, Surakarta, Surabaya). In the aftermath of the violence, a Joint Fact Finding (JFF) team was tasked to document the rapes. After the JFF team reported that the violence had been organised, General Wiranto publicly apologised for the army’s failure to prevent the violence and acknowledged that elements in the military were involved. In addition to the government-mandated JFF, a special rapporteur was established by the United Nations to validate JFF findings and interview some of the victims. Both have officially reported that the sexual abuse in May 1998 did occur.

The total number of JaRI’s clients who have benefitted from medical examinations, counselling and litigation services by volunteers and professional staff until 2022 was 1657 cases. In the beginning work to support violence against women victims was difficult, it was an “unknown” territory, with no clear data, but JaRI kept trying and slowly became known in the community as an organization that can help violence victims without any payment. Then JaRI got support from an NGO and donations, only then in 2002 JaRI was able to rent a room as a secretariat at a private hospital. For communication JaRI used a hotline service, and the work was mainly done by volunteers. Later on, JaRI got support from WHO, Global Fund for Women and ILO, also from “Pundi Perempuan” for activities.Afterwards several local governments asked for JaRI’s support to solve violence cases in their respective districts.

In 2011 JaRI decided to be more focused on prevention activities, due to the difficulties of violence victims’ rehabilitation and the limited support for violence cases. Previously information dissemination activities such as discussions in schools were not planned, just on demand. In 2012 JaRI published leaflets and made a video on sexual violence prevention and in 2017 developed a “Safe Child” program working in collaboration with Rotary Club. After 2012 one of JaRI’s violence prevention activities was organizing seminars, and during the COVID-19 pandemic webinars and talk shows had more effect on the community. JaRI developed training modules for internal purposes and published two books as the results of writing competitions in 2021 and 2022, The books are a compilation of 50 best papers among more than 400 participants’ papers from all over Indonesia.

In a 2015 review JaRI identified two success stories that strengthened our conviction we are on the right path. A case was of a gang raped victim, a university student aged 19 who experienced regression to the intellectual level of a six year old and who became pregnant from the incident. A JaRI psychologist kept counselling her, the medical service arranged for a pregnancy and childbirth service and the social volunteer arranged for the baby’s adoption. After about a year she got better, finished her studies, got married and from time to time visits the JaRI secretariat which according to her is “The place of my rebirth”. Another success story was from JaRI’s prevention activity. A servant found JaRI’s leaflet on the roadside, apparently it was dropped from one of JaRI’s volunteer’s file. She read the leaflet and she can support her niece who was raped by her boyfriend and report the case to the police, so that the boyfriend got a court sentence. It turns out that the lady was a servant in the home of one of JaRI’s volunteers.

Since 2012 it was difficult to attract donors and JaRI needed more funds to support activities and a new secretariat, hence in 2015 JaRI tried to raise funds through a charity night performance “Arjuna Dibia Sakti” which was a collaboration between Balinese and Indian dancing groups. It was a success, not only raising funds for activities, JaRI also got a place for our secretariat (after several years of residing in a doctor member’s office), to a reasonable office with good access. In 2016 JaRI established a support group “Friends of JaRI” which was an effective support not only for funds but also for service such as translation. Another fund raising effort was done in 2018 with another cultural charity night “Legong Sampek Engtay” which was an Indonesian dan Chinese cultural show.

JaRI has also been active in research and joined conferences to publicize the results. JaRI has supported many undergraduates, mainly Psychology majors, as a field resource for their final papers. In 2016 JaRI presented a paper “Parenting in adolescent growth and development for violence prevention” in a national workshop for Three Ends (End Violence Against Women and Children, End Human Trafficking and End Barriers To Economic Justice) and published in “Matra SDGs” (Sustainable Development Goals). JaRI also presented a study in a Kartini Day commemoration April 2018 “Role of Women in Medical research and education” conducted by USAID Sustainable Higher Education Research Alliances (SHERA) in the Faculty of Medicine Padjadjaran University Bandung. In May 2018 JaRI conducted a study on “Indicators of Child Marriage: The lack of complete documents for marriage registration” that was presented in an international conference in August 2019. In 2023 JaRI received an innovation grant for violence against women in strengthening the health system from the West Java province budget. This is an ongoing program partnering with the Medical Faculty Padjadjaran University and West Java local governments.

Volunteer recruitment is an important activity to support programs, at least once every two years JaRI undertakes a volunteer recruitment since many volunteers average service time is about three years. It is through this activity that JaRI can recruit younger, more information technology savvy volunteers. The young volunteers have supported JaRI’s social media activity in 2017 particularly for violence prevention activities, and by 2019 social media is an established JaRI publication. JaRI uses the social media to communicate all services, and it’s a good way for attracting interest. For instance in 2021 JaRI did a joint campaign for violence against women with an organic cosmetic company that would like to support JaRI activities after the company browsed JaRI activities. This collaboration resulted in a donation of 80 million rupiahs.

The decision to develop social media to support our programs was timely. By 2020 when Indonesia was struggling with COVID-19 pandemic, JaRI could readily switch to online services. In a sense it was a “blessing in disguise” during the COVID-19 pandemic JaRI was able to support not only the traditional districts nearby Bandung in West Java, but other areas outside Java: Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, as well as Central and East Java.

Gender equality issue
In the beginning cases in JaRI were mostly of domestic violence, later dating violence, and between 2015-2020 more cases of violence against children were reported.

Gender inequality, Indonesia