VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government officially began Covid-19 vaccination for 6-11 years old children on Tuesday (14/12). The vaccination for children is based on the recommendation by the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization - ITAGI.

This vaccination is done in stages. In the first stage, the vaccination is carried out in provinces, regencies, and cities where the first dose vaccination has reached more than 70% and elderly vaccination above 60%.

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, Muhadjir Effendy, as quoted from liputan6.com (14/12), said that for now, only 8.8 million children from 106 regencies/cities and 11 provinces will be vaccinated.

The Health Ministry explained, as quoted from kemkes.go.id (14/12), that to finish the children vaccination needs more than 58.7 million vaccine doses. Currently, the Health Ministry has prepared 6.4 million doses for December 2021 and more will be added in January 2022.

The vaccination for 6-11 years old children must be supported because of several crucial reasons, such as protecting children from Covid-19. 

Apart from that, it aims to restore the learning process. Director General at the Education Ministry's Early Education, Primary School, and High School, Jumeri, as quoted from kemdikbud.go.id (14/12) said that the government aimed the learning recovery to immediately take place through face-to-face classes.

It is expected that the vaccination for children will be successful. Parents have an important role in supporting this vaccination.

This time, we are going to let you know ‘Kaliurip Tourism Village’. It is located in the Kemiri District, Purworejo Regency, Central Java and the village offers a main tourism attraction in the form of Curug or Kaliurip waterfall. Besides Kaliurip waterfall, this village also offers other natural attractions, such as the pine forest that is also an off-road car circuit. Traveling to this tourism village, you can try a tour package around the village for Rp150,000 per person. With this tour package, you can get around the village with the local transportation provided. You will also enjoy a traditional snack as well as lunch of Nasi Tumpeng Pecel with a side dish of Javanese Chicken Ingkung.

To try the Kaliurip Village tour package, you will visit a home industry of making Rengginang food from cassava or usually called Krempeyeng. In addition to enjoying the crunchy and tasty snack, you can also practice making it. After the Rengginang home industry, you will be taken to a fruit plant nursery to learn grafting. The next tourism destination is Curug Kaliurip. This waterfall has a water level of about 45 meters. Under the waterfall, there is Kedung (water pool) as deep as 8 meters that looks calm. Visitors are not allowed to bathe in the waterfall area. So, you can only take pictures and enjoy the waterfall from a distance about 10 meters above Kedung. 

To get relaxed, gazebos and pavilion in this area are also available as a place to take rest. There are also prayer rooms and toilet facilities. Besides taking pictures, you may also enjoy nature at Curug Kaliurip that can also be immortalized through scratches on canvas. In this package, you are given the opportunity to paint anything at the tourism spot because the management has prepared painting equipment. The result of the painting can be taken home, after traveling, don’t forget to buy Rengginang, Sermier crackers, and cassava peel chips as your souvenirs.

Coordinating Minister for Economy, Airlangga Hartarto said that the government's effort through the National Economic Recovery Program in 2021 has been on the track as intended and will be continued in 2022. Minister Airlangga in an official statement in Jakarta on Tuesday (14/12) said that the government countercyclical budget policy, especially through the National Economic Recovery Program had protected the vulnerable people and stimulated the business sector to grow positively. Indonesia is one of few countries whose output has returned to the pre-pandemic level.

The National Economic Recovery realization until December 10, 2021 had reached 69.8 percent. It includes health with 66.7 percent, social security 81.5 percent, priority programs 70.9 percent, business incentive 100 percent, and micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs) and corporation 47.9 percent. Meanwhile, the new program is job loss insurance - derivative of the Job Creation Law.

Allocation changes for the National Economic Recovery Programs included extreme poverty handling, labor intensive programs, and job loss insurance. Minister Airlangga Hartarto also remarked that some parts of the tourism and retail sectors were  very much helped by wage subsidies. The government created some safety nets in case any sector faces difficulties in their operations and administration.

Furthermore, Minister Airlangga Hartarto said that the government's program in 2021 focused on extreme poverty handling in 35 regencies/cities in 7 provinces with two programs namely groceries card for 3 months and village aid for 3 months. In line with that, there will be a National Socio-Economic Survey in 2022 to handle 212 regencies/cities. Minister Airlangga added that the government targets to reduce extreme poverty rate in 2022 to 3-3.5 percent and poverty between 9.2-9.17 percent.

By 2022, the government will have allocated the budget of Covid-19 Handling Program and National Economic Recovery Program worth Rp414 trillion to handle the Covid-19 pandemic in the health sector and people security. According to Minister Airlangga, the health sector budget is worth Rp117.9 trillion, people security Rp154.8 trillion, and economic recovery strengthening Rp141.4 trillion.

The 2022 State Budget will be focused on national economic recovery and structural reformation. Also, the 2022 State Budget will focus on handling the pandemic so that the State Budget becomes an instrument to maintain Indonesian economic recovery and support the continuity of the Covid-19 pandemic handling programs.

The Indonesian traditional musical instrument, Gamelan has been officially designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. This decision has just been adopted at UNESCO's 16th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Paris, France on 15 December 2021. Previously, Indonesian cultures that had been included in the list were Wayang, keris, batik, batik education and training, and Angklung. Other Indonesian cultures are the Saman dance, Noken, three traditional dance genres in Bali, the art of Phinisi shipbuilding, the tradition of Pencak Silat, and Pantun.

The news was announced by President Joko Widodo through social media accounts, Wednesday (15/12). He said that Gamelan has long been a part of the daily life of the Indonesian people of various regions in Indonesia. Gamelan also inspires and influences world music. Therefore, President Joko Widodo remarked that he was proud of the determination of Gamelan as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. He also stated that Indonesia would always preserve Gamelan. Launching an official statement from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, it is known that Indonesia has submitted its nomination since 2019.

Previously, the Indonesian government registered Gamelan to be included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2020. Gamelan competed with a number of nominations from other countries. Gamelan is the Indonesian traditional musical instrument consisting of saron, bonang, gong, drum, gangsa, fiddle, slenthem, peking and flute. Playing Gamelan must also be done together in order to produce a beautiful musical rhythm. Gamelan has begun to develop in Java and Bali since the Hindu-Buddhist era. This musical instrument is used as an accompaniment to dances, puppets or songs.