Gemma Holliani Cahya, Jakarta – A white homemade hazmat suit was folded neatly near Sukamti's sewing machine in the corner of her living room in Wukirsari village, Sleman, Yogyakarta.
The suit Sukamti made that morning before cooking stir-fried bok choy for her family lunch was intended for doctors or nurses treating COVID-19 patients. "After lunch I plan to make another one," the 34-year-old mother said.
Sukamti produces around four hazmat suits a day. She is among more than 60 volunteers who have been sewing hazmat suits in their own houses for medical workers across Yogyakarta for the past few weeks as part of a movement called Majelis Mau Jahitin (willing-to-sew initiative).
On normal days Sukamti runs a small tailor's shop at her house. She single-handedly makes uniforms and clothes ordered by her neighbors. But her business came to a standstill when the coronavirus outbreak swept through the country. Her small family now relies only on her husband who takes odd jobs.
Sukamti first heard about Majelis Mau Jahitin from her husband. Watching the news about the lack of protective coveralls for medical workers who treat COVID-19 patients, she knew right away she must join the fight.
"If I could choose, I would not want to sew these. I am sure if the medical workers could choose, they also would not want to be on the frontline exposing themselves to the contagious disease with a lack of protection," she told The Jakarta Post.
"We are here in this pandemic simply playing our role. It will not end if we do not start to help each other."
Budhi Hermanto, the initiator of the movement, said the idea came around early March when Yogyakarta reported the first confirmed cases. He saw how medical workers in a hospital in Yogyakarta were left unprotected.
"Some doctors told me that they only had a few masks. [...] It sounded like a suicide mission. We could not afford to lose them, so we decided to act fast to help protect them," he said.
Working at a health clinic in Yogyakarta himself, Budhi knew nothing about tailoring. He later gathered some of his contacts and they started doing research on how to make protective suits.
They made several prototypes and consulted with surgeons before deciding to use waterproof materials such as spunbonded polypropylene.
"It really warms my heart to see so many people eager to work together in this situation to protect medical workers. [...] Many strangers came to me and asked me how they could play a part in making protective suits for doctors," Budhi said.
By the end of March, the group had made almost 2,000 hazmat suits for health facilities across Yogyakarta. They also sent some to health facilities in remote areas, such as in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
They provide tutorials on how to make hazmat suits on their website mamajahit.id to encourage others with sewing machines to start their own initiatives to help medical workers in their neighborhoods.
The impact of the pandemic has brought devastation across Indonesia, with 864 deaths recorded officially and more than 11,000 confirmed cases as of Monday.
The government estimates that up to 3.78 million Indonesians will fall into poverty and 5.2 million people may lose their jobs during the pandemic.
Yet, the unprecedented crisis has also brought out people's compassion despite their own hardships during the pandemic and grassroots communities across the nation have reached out to others in need.
In early April, Endang Yuliastuti, 50, a junior high school teacher who rents out small houses in Tangerang, Banten, waived the rents of her tenants until July. The tenants are families of daily paid workers and street vendors whose livelihoods have been badly affected by the pandemic.
"They are young families with babies, I imagine it must be a really hard time for them [...]. My husband and I agreed to pass up their rent because that is the least that we can do to help," she said.
When she told her tenants, Endang said they could not hide their gratitude and wept with joy. Endang said she hoped other landlords could follow in her footsteps.
In Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, private employee Adista Indri and her mother have put 15 free packs of food in a box in front of their house at around 11:30 a.m. every day since early April. The sign on the box says: "Anyone who is in need, please take it".
Adista said most of the people who took the meals were app-based ride-hailing service drivers and delivery men who were passing by their house.
Adisti shared the details of the meals, which cost Rp 11,000 (73 US cents) each, on Twitter on April 3 and it went viral.
"My mother makes sure that the meal has enough protein and that there are always vegetables and fruit included," she wrote, adding that her father who has retired and her mother who works as a civil servant planned to provide the free lunches until the outbreak ends.
"I shared that on Twitter because there are a lot of options to help others during this pandemic. We can start something small in our own localities," she told the Post.
Anna Surti Ariani, a child and family psychologist, said that when people focused on acts of kindness toward others and stopped thinking about the impact of the pandemic on their own lives, they might boost their immune systems.
"Helping others makes us feel content and that positive energy can improve our immune systems," she said.