January 8, 2026 | 08:49 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin shares a story behind the deployment of health volunteers to the flood and landslide-affected areas in Sumatra. Budi explained that hundreds of Health Ministry volunteers arrived in the disaster area through Malaysia.
The volunteer group initially departed from Jakarta to Malaysia, then continued their journey by air from Malaysia to Medan. According to Budi, the volunteers took this route because the demand for flights to the disaster area from Jakarta was high, causing ticket prices to soar. "At that time, the cost through Malaysia was cheaper than departing from Jakarta to Medan. In the end, we redirected the departure of our volunteers to Kuala Lumpur first, then from Kuala Lumpur to Medan or Aceh, as there were more options and it was cheaper," he said during a press conference at the BNPB Building, Jakarta, on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
Due to this incident, Budi mentioned that the public initially thought that the group of volunteers in blue uniforms sent by the Ministry of Health were from Malaysia. "It went viral because people thought that those in blue attire came from Malaysia. No, they are Indonesian Health Ministry volunteers sent through Malaysia. Why? Because the Jakarta-Medan flights were full and the prices became expensive," Budi said.
Overall, the Ministry of Health has deployed around 4,000 health volunteers to provide medical services at more than 1,000 evacuation points. These volunteers are rotated every two weeks, with about 200 medical and health workers on standby at various affected locations every day.
Budi prioritized the volunteers to reach isolated areas cut off by floods and landslides. "So the volunteers need to be tough. Why? We are not sending these volunteers to the city, we are sending them to isolated areas, so they need to have some adventurous spirit," he said.
Read: North Sumatra Govt Completes Post-Disaster Rehab Documents
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