VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The innovation of the ParuKu application by University of Indonesia (UI) students won the People's Choice Award at the international NUS Medical Grand Challenge 2021 organized by the National University of Singapore. ParuKu is an Artificial Intelligence-based chatbot application that helps accompany Indonesian people in making decisions amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The ParuKu application provides several services in the form of information on vaccination schedules and locations, information on the availability of hospital beds for Covid-19 services, as well as laboratory recommendations for Covid-19 diagnostic tests based on the user's location and the capacity of health facilities. The application is a collaborative work of students from the Faculty of Medicine (FK) and the Faculty of Computer Science (Fasilkom) UI.

On one hand, the idea of creating ParuKu innovation started from a phenomenon in the community who is worried about being infected with Covid-19 when visiting hospitals or other health sectors amid ongoing pandemic. On the other hand, people need to queue for a long time to receive health services, so there is a possibility of being infected. ParuKu is expected to be able to reduce the duration of time that must be provided for the administrative process in receiving health services. In addition, this application allows users to visit health facilities at the right time without having to queue for a long time.

Mutiara Auliya Firdausy, a member of the ParuKu Team hopes that this application can be widely used in many areas and can help accelerate the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The ParuKu application is one of the innovative solutions from the 16 participating teams in the 2021 NUS Medical Grand Challenge competition which is judged by a panel of judges who have expert backgrounds from various industries, such as information technology, health care, and engineering. Each team put their proposals into action and their ideas were judged to have an impact on healthcare, innovation, business strategy, marketing and commercialization.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a great influence towards education in the world, including in Indonesia. To prevent the virus spreading among students and teachers, classes are held online. In Indonesia, the online class or called "PJJ" has been ensuring the learning process continues. 

After one year, the end of the pandemic is still unknown. Meanwhile, online classes have caused some negative impacts. One of which is learning loss that happens across the world. A study found that face-to-face class results in better academic achievement than online classes. Some other impacts are various social issues, such as domestic violence against children. Many students also faced difficulties in joining the online classes. 

A survey by the Education and Culture Ministry's Policy Research Center in 2021 found that being hard to concentrate and limited internet are the greatest issues faced by the students during online classes.

Considering the negative impacts, many students and their parents are waiting for the face-to-face class again. Currently, the Level 3 social restriction allows a limited face-to-face class. President Joko Widodo on Thursday (19/8) as quoted from merdeka.com said that he will allow the face-to-face class if they have been vaccinated.

How do schools respond to this?

Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, some 63 percent of schools in Indonesia can have a limited face-to-face class. But only 26 percent did it. The rest were faced with regional government's permits. Many regions are reluctant to give permits even if their regions are level 3. This reluctance might be because of being careful and every region has different conditions.

Whatever the reason is, the regional government needs to realize the face-to-face class so that the negative impacts will not happen again.

The 26 percent schools that had done it are expected to follow very strict health protocols and the number of students in the classroom must be limited. To ensure this, monitoring by every regional government is necessary.

Inevitably, almost every conflict or war in one country has an impact on other countries. This can be seen at least from the increasing number of refugees in various places. Conflicts in several African countries, have caused displacement. Chaos in Armenia Azerbaijan, has the same impact. Syria, which has always been hit by civil war, has troubled other countries, including Europe, because of the flood of refugees. Rohingya refugees are also a clear example of the internal turmoil in Myanmar. And lastly is Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans have been transported by plane out of their country, while many others have flooded Kabul's International Airport. News in the international mass media repeatedly broadcast the situation at Hamid Karzai airport, Kabul. Everything gives an idea of how chaotic and depressing the atmosphere there is. It also illustrates how suffering those who try to escape from their homeland are. Several countries have expressed their willingness to accept Afghan refugees, including the United States. It was reported that these Afghan refugees not only flooded the airport in Kabul, but also spread across the borders with other countries, including Pakistan, Uzbekistan and others. Unlike the United States, Canada and several European countries, the neighboring countries readiness to accept refugees from Afghanistan is constrained due to the conditions of their respective countries.

Tensions at Kabul's international airport have increased with the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops, which is August 31, 2021. Meanwhile, the Taliban has said it does not want the United States to extend that time. The fate of Afghan refugees then, seems to be more concerning because of it.

The issue of refugees due to civil war or conflict has finally become a problem for other countries. UNHCR, the UN agency that handles refugees, is trying to help overcome this problem in various countries, especially those on the borders. UNHCR has established many shelters and provided food aid.

Of course, it is not so simple to blame certain parties as the cause of thousands or even millions of refugees who fled their country. Because the situation is pretty complex. But what is really more important is, how to deal with the millions of people who have already fled and prevent more refugees from happening.

President Joko Widodo was acting as an inspector of the Commemoration of the Proclamation of Independence of the Republic of Indonesia at the State Palace in Jakarta on August 17, 2021. At the ceremony, he wore traditional Pepadun clothes from Lampung. The traditional clothes worn are dominated by red and white colors. President  Joko Widodo wore white long sleeves and pants. At the waist, it was wrapped with a typical red Lampung sarong and woven with gold thread. The President also pinned a red scarf with the same motif as the sarong. At the waist of the President, there was a red belt with gold-colored circle accessories. He also wore a red headband with a yellow pattern. Meanwhile, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin was present wearing blue Sundanese traditional clothes.

Lampung traditional clothes are known as Tulang Bawang clothes. Tulang Bawang clothes are usually worn on certain events, such as weddings. The Tulang Bawang clothes are divided into Lampung Pepadun and Lampung Saubatin.  The striking difference between the two traditional clothes is the dominance of color in which Lampung Pepaduan is more identical with white, while Lampung Saubatin is red. Basically, there are several main components of Lampung traditional clothes worn by men and women. For men, this traditional dress consists of a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, tumpal sarong, sesapuran, and khikat akhir.

The main point of Lampung traditional clothes is the sarong tumpal, which is a typical Lampung cloth woven with gold thread. On the clothes worn by President Joko Widodo, there is a red tumpal sarung with gold thread decoration in it. Then, there is also khikat akhir or bujur scarf. This scarf is draped over the shoulders to cover the shoulders. In addition to the main components, there are also supporting accessories that are usually used. They are a necklace from jakum fruit, papan jalar necklace, selempang pinang, various bracelets, and belts equipped with a dagger.

This traditional Pepadun clothing from Lampung has a very beautiful philosophical meaning. Clothing with a predominance of white color depicts the nature of wisdom, cleanliness and purity. The white color is also mentioned as a symbol that the people of Lampung are civilized and obedient to religious norms. Then, the gold color in these traditional clothes shows strength and prayer for abundance of sustenance.