Fundraising Project for Transwoman Community | Jahe House

When the government announced Indonesia's first two COVID cases, chaos was inevitable. It started with panic buying, but as the number of patients kept going up, and we went into isolation, the economy was massively impacted. Millions of people lost their job, local businesses didn't survive, and the country went into recession.

At the beginning of isolation, I came across Eva's Instagram post. She is the founder of Garda Pangan, a food rescue non-profit in Surabaya. Her caption said,

"We were at the loss of words seeing Merry's condition. She is one of the occupants of Sememi, a neighborhood where many underprivileged transwomen lived in such a poor environment. The place is constantly suffering from the flood in the rainy season. She stays in a room where there is no separator between the kitchen & the toilet. It costs her Rp. 25.000 a month ($1.5)-which she struggles to pay amid this pandemic."

Merry's story is not uncommon. Many transwomen who have tried to send in proposal asking for help to various instancies including the local government, with no result at all. Most of them are not Surabaya citizens, considering many moved out from their original hometown due to discrimination and intimidation.

I couldn't donate much money considering my job was also on the verge of a layoff; I offered to do pay-as-you-wish commission where all of the funds will be donated to the community. To our surprise, the response was incredible. We managed to donate more than 6 million rupiahs from the project.