Samilah, 65 years old, looks happy while holding a vaccine card after leaving the observation room at the Ngleri village hall, Playen Gunungkidul, on Wednesday (22/9). Accompanied by her eldest son, Samilah was one of 3,000 residents who received vaccine in three villages around the Wanagama forest, Gunungkidul, namely Ngleri, Getas, and Banaran.
“I want to be healthy,” said the woman who works as a corn farmer living in Ngleri Village.
The woman of two children and four grandchildren mustered up the courage to participate in the vaccination after knowing that her two children who had taken the vaccine were still healthy. It dismissed her fear that the vaccine could cause Covid-19. “I was initially afraid, but after seeing that my children are healthy after the vaccine, I dared to come,” said Samilah, who received vaccination information from the village where she lived.
Samilah is one of the residents in Ngleri who participated in the vaccination organized by Universitas Gadjah Mada in collaboration with the Indonesian National Police (Polri). The vaccination program called Vaksinasi Merdeka was simultaneously held in 96 places throughout Indonesia. President Joko Widodo directly opened this mass vaccination in collaboration with various universities in Indonesia online at the IPB campus in Bogor. In his opening speech, the President said that this vaccination activity supports the government target so that 80 percent of citizens are immediately vaccinated. “We are targeting 253,000 residents who will receive the vaccine today,” Jokowi said online.
According to the President, the government has taken two strategic steps in dealing with the current Covid-19 pandemic: accelerating vaccination and strengthening health protocols. “There are only two keys,” he said.
In a dialogue with the vaccination committee, Joko Widodo appreciated the campus, which involved students and a team of health workers by collaborating with the National Police for simultaneous mass vaccinations. He hopes that such activity will accelerate the vaccination program launched by the government to reach people who have not received the vaccine.
Amelia Nenna, a student of the Nursing study program at UGM FKKMK, was one of 30 student volunteers on a vaccination companion team involved in this mass vaccination activity. “Today is the sixth vaccination program in which I participated with the UGM Covid-19 task force team. Apart from UGM, vaccination activities have been carried out in several places in Yogyakarta,” she said.
According to her, she got more knowledge on vaccination through her participation as a vaccination companion volunteer. The activities that she participated in in the UGM Covid-19 task force further strengthened her skills in the nursing field.
Head of the UGM Covid-19 Task Force, Dr. Rutamadji, said the mass vaccination program this time was a continuation of the vaccination activities carried out by UGM for Yogyakarta residents. “We want to be closer to the community to be more targeted and increase coverage by more than 50 percent. We hope that herd immunity can be achieved,” he explained.
In this Vaksinasi Merdeka program in collaboration with the National Police and the Gunungkidul government, UGM has deployed 30 student volunteers and 30 health workers.
The chairman of the DPRD for Gunungkidul Regency, Endah Subekti, expressed her appreciation to UGM and the Gunungkidul Police who were involved in the simultaneous Free Vaccination. According to her, this vaccination activity can reach Gunungkidul residents who have not been vaccinated. “We hope that we will achieve herd immunity soon so that community activities can return to normal,” she said.
