The central government and the local administration have done little to improve their plight, leaving the community full of uncertainty about the future.
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By Panca Nugraha | August 27, 2016
Forced out of their houses over religious differences, they have lived like refugees for years, but they are still willing to donate their blood to save the lives of others.
On Friday, at least 80 members of the Ahmadiyah community donated blood through the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Mataram, West Lombok. They had their blood taken at the Wisma Transito building, where they have lived for the past 10 years.
“We have been doing these donations routinely since moving here in 2006,” Syahidin, one of the group’s leaders, told The Jakarta Post during the blood donation event, which kicked off after Friday prayers.
Syahidin said the blood donation was conducted up to four times a year, involving about 80 people.
In early February 2006, more than 30 Ahmadi families were driven from their homes in the hamlet of Ketapang near Gegerung village, Lingsar district, West Lombok regency by people opposed to their belief.
They were forcibly evacuated and housed at the Wisma Transito building.
The central government and the local administration have done little to improve their plight, leaving the community full of uncertainty about the future.
As many as 33 Ahmadi families, numbering 118 people, living at the shelter today.
Twenty-five children were born in the shelter and nine adults have passed away.
“We don’t know who to turn to; our efforts to draw the attention of the government have apparently failed and our condition remains unchanged ever since this started,” said Syahidin.
Fellow Ahmadi evacuee Pramono, 55, said he had donated blood more than 50 times.
Even though the government appears to have abandoned them, Pramono said he was always willing to donate blood for the sake of humanity.
“We have been taught to love all and hate none. Despite our limitations, we have blood that we can give to anyone in need,” he said.
The blood donation activity was filled with joy and involved Ahmadiyah men and women.
The participants were invited one by one to have blood taken by staff members from the red cross on a corridor in the Wisma Transito compound. Afterward, they enjoyed meals prepared by their community.
“If you’re asking what we expect and hope for, we want to return home and live a decent and normal life like other Indonesian citizens. We want to be free to work to raise our children and meet their educational and health care needs,” said another evacuee, Asmawati, 35.
“But, our fate remains uncertain up until now.”
She added that the central government and provincial administration had yet to respond whether or not they would return the Ahmadi followers to their place of origin, or relocate them.
“We feel like we’ve been completely abandoned. If we lived in our village, my husband could take care of the land,” she said.
Her two children, four-and-a-half year old Asifa Nirat and five-month old Rafa Mubarak, are among the 25 people born into what may be Indonesia’s longest-ever crisis of internally displaced people.
Read the original post here: Indonesia: Ahmadi people express care for others with blood donation
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