Foundation donates coffins and shrouds to funeral agency
Foundation donates coffins and shrouds to funeral agency
JAKARTA (JP): A local fund-raising foundation donated
yesterday coffins and unbleached cotton used for shrouds to help
the city's financially troubled nursing homes and funeral agency
in burying dead bodies abandoned by relatives.
In a modest ceremony at the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency, the
head of the Pelangi Foundation, Mrs. Handjojo Nitimihardjo,
symbolically handed over 45 coffins and 310 pieces of unbleached
cloth.
The coffins were donated to the city's funeral agency and the
cloth to six of the city-owned nursing homes.
Mrs. Nitimihardjo, wife of the former chairman of Antara news
agency, said the donation was intended to help the two parties
which have experienced severe budget cuts during the crisis,
including the allocation for abandoned and unclaimed bodies.
"We were surprised by news that the social service centers
find it difficult these days to finance deceased residents'
funerals," she said.
Head of the City Social Affairs Agency Emon Setia Sumantri,
who witnessed the ceremony, admitted that it was a first for the
city's social agencies to receive the unusual aid package. Its
total value is about Rp 27 million, including other burial items
such as cotton, camphor and perfume.
"This kind of donation is badly needed these days as we have
no budget for the funeral of residents at all of our social
service centers due to the prolonged economic turmoil," Emon
said.
The city administration is responsible for 21 centers, home to
thousands of abandoned babies, the mentally ill, sex workers
undergoing rehabilitation and the elderly.
Emon confided he had not anticipated the problem developing.
"I therefore hope for more parties to be kind enough to
contribute donations in the form of such funeral items," he said.
Acute economic problems, he said, meant the funeral agency was
no longer able to provide assistance to the city's social service
centers in financing the funerals, from bathing the corpse to
burial, of deceased residents.
"They now can only help us with their ambulance," Emon said.
The six nursing homes that received the cloth from Pelangi
were Panti Usada Mulia in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, Panti Sosial
Tresna Werda "Bhakti Mulia 01" in Cipayung, East Jakarta, Panti
Sosial Tresna Werda "Bhakti Mulia 02" in Kebon Kosong in Central
Jakarta, Panti Sosial Tresna Werda "Bhakti Mulia 03" in
Cengkareng, Panti Sosial Tresna Werda "Bhakti Mulia 04" in
Kampung Gedong in East Jakarta, Panti Sosial Tresna Werda "Bhakti
Mulia 05" in Jelambar, West Jakarta.
The Jakarta Post reported on July 20 that many of the city's
social service centers were suffering serious financial problems,
including funds allocated to cover the burial expenses of the
patients, such as the purchase of the cloth for wrapping the
remains and transportation of the corpses to the cemetery.
Head of Harapan Sentosa O3 in Jelambar, West Jakarta, Soleh
Badaruddin, said the death of a resident would cost his center Rp
100,000.
"That amount means so much to us because it's half our daily
budget," Soleh said. (ind)