Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The National Zakat Board of Indonesia (Baznas) provided food aid for the blind people in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, who have been severely affected by the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19)
"We are grateful for the Baznas attention for the blind who live very hard lives with the outbreak of the COVID-19," said the Indonesian Union for the Blind (Pertuni) Banjarmasin adviser H Hesly Junianto, SH, MH here on Tuesday (April 14, 2020).
According to him, the assistance of food packages distributed by Baznas to the blind in the capital of South Kalimantan was very beneficial for the survival of those who barely able to make a living.
"Most of our blind brothers work massage, but the plague (COVID-19) requires everyone to maintain physical distance to cut off the transmission, so they no longer work," Hesly told.
With no income from their only job, he said, their family's basic needs had become bleak. They were grateful there were Baznas who cared about helping their needs.
"Some of them have wife and children, they even couples who both are blind," he said.
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Hesly, who is the chairperson of Muhammadiyah South Kalimantan's Community Empowerment Council (MPM) said his party's activities to foster religion or provide entrepreneurial training for the blind must also be stopped temporarily.
"So it is the disabilities, especially the blind, the most economically affected. Even they also are very vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 if not careful, because their work interacts directly as a masseuse," he said.
"From Baznas yesterday there were more than 30 food packages, there were also from the mayor personally. Hopefully, this disaster will pass soon, but the important thing is now we are together against it, and helping each other," Hesly Junianto said.
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