Dani Ferdian, Promoting Empathy for the Country
Ten years ago, Doctor Dani Ferdian, 30, was still a student. However, at that time, he did not want to be trapped in his own activities. Dani came out of his comfort zone by establishing a volunteer movement in the health sector called Volunteer Doctors (Vol –D).
Now, the movement has spread to a number of regions involving more than 500 volunteers.
The city of Bandung, West Java, began to be quiet on Tuesday afternoon on April 9, this year. Almost all the lights in each room had been turned off. Only a few rooms were still "alive", one of them was the room of the public health lecturer. There, Dani was busy mentoring a number of his students in writing their thesis.
Dani is a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Padjadjaran (Unpad). He also got his bachelor degree at the university in 2011, while his master decree was obtained from the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia in 2017.
When he was still in the first year in Unpad in 2007, Dani joined the community service established by the university’s student executive board (BEM). He began to catch a number of problems in the community, one of which was related to health.
In his second year in Unpad, Dani was appointed as the head of the community service section run by the BEM at the university’s faculty of medicine, which made him more involved in the community service.
In several villages around his campus in Jatinangor, Sumedang, he met with residents who could not benefit from health facilities. "At that time, I realized that the government could not solve health problems alone. There should be social movements in the health sector to help the government," he said.
Dani realized that his activities at BEM were limited by his terms of duty. While social activities must be continued. Therefore, at the end of 2009, he founded the Volunteer Doctors , which has become more popular with its acronym Vol-D. Dani invited dozens of his fellow medical students to serve in the health sector. "At that time we were not yet doctors. So, Vol-D helped fulfill our dream to become a doctor," he said.
Two years of studying at the medical faculty was not enough to understand a number of various diseases. Moreover, they also did not have the authority to treat patients. However, such limitation should not be used as an excuse not to do any things at the campus. They believed they could still help the community, such as by helping to measure a blood pressure and check blood sugar and cholesterol.
The people were also educated to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle. "If further action is needed, we refer them to Puskesmas (public health center) or a hospital. The point is that how small it is we can still contribute to helping the community," he said.
More popular
Not only visiting the villages, the volunteers also went to a number of areas hit by natural disaster. One of them was Pangalengan, Bandung Regency, which was hit by the earthquake in September 2009. The earthquake with a magnitude 7.3 earthquake , which was centered southwest of Tasikmalaya, damaged hundreds of houses in Pangalengan.
A number of residents were injured after being hit by the rubble of the building. Realizing the impact was quite severe; Vol-D took a number of doctors, some of whom were Unpad’s graduates to help the injured residents.
"At the directives of the doctors, we helped clean the wounds and write prescription for the injured residents," he said. They also went down to several other disaster locations, such as some areas which were hit by floods and landslides in Ciwidey, southern Bandung in 2010.
With its growing social activities, Vol-D became more popular within the campus. In 2010, a number of requests from several institutions and communities to establish cooperation with Vol-D began to come in. More volunteers were needed to carry out the growing activities. "We recruited around 30 students of the medical faculty of Unpad. The majority of them were close friends who have empathy to help the community," Dani added.
At the campus, Vol-D members told their experiences to other students. More students were interested in joining the organization. In 2011, more than 150 people were registered as volunteers. "At that time, about 40 volunteers were medical and midwifery students from the faculty of medicine of Unpad," he said
Vol-D activities continued to increase because more requests came to cooperate in social activities. The volunteers were also often asked by other college students in Bandung to assist their community service activities.
In 2013, the name of the Vol-D became popular outside West Java, because the movement was often discussed in meetings between medical students throughout Indonesia. Dani said many students from outside West Java wanted to join. In fact, some of them were from non-medical majors, such as engineering and economics.
"They intended to serve the community. They could not be rejected. We finally opened the application for new volunteers through an online registration," he said. More than 500 participants joined the application, including dozens of them from Jakarta. Dani said, at that time they were still prioritizing participants from West Java, because the activities of the movement were mostly carried out in the province.
"Because there were quite a lot of participants from Jakarta, we also established the branch of Volunteer Doctors there. However, they still had to take part in the training held in Bandung for six months like other prospective volunteers," he said.
Prospective volunteers took several tests, such as basic medical skills tests, social sensitivity, and team works. The tight selection test was intended to build the commitment of the prospective volunteers to
the movement, because in doing their activities, the volunteers often had to sacrifice their time, energy, thoughts, even money to help the community.
Remove stigma
In addition to West Java and Jakarta, the Vol-D movement has also established branches in Yogyakarta and South Sulawesi. Movements in each region have their own authority over their respective activities. However, the focus is still on community service in the health sector.
Now, Dani is no longer a student. However, the movement continues and becomes bigger. "This year, we prepare the opening of Vol-D in Bali. Hopefully it can be also opened in other regions," he said.
In addition to serving the people, through the Vol-D, Dani also wants to remove the stigma against medical students. So far, medical students have often been considered exclusive and less sensitive to the social environment around them. That was because they had a lot of subjects they had to learn and the complexity of their tests they had to follow. As a result, the medical students did not much time to take care of things outside the campus.
However, Dani did not want to get trapped in the situation. "When there were in the college, the students were subsidized by the government using public money. So they need to serve the people, whether they are still in college or working," he said.
Late at night, Dani prepared to go home. Although he was no longer a caretaker in Vol-D, he never stopped thinking about it. He has a big dream that the movement can promote empathy to help people throughout the country.
Dani Ferdian
Born: Bandung, April 5, 1989
Wife: Dentist Aristyani Dwi Rahmani
Children : Kenzie Muhammad Azzamul Ilmi; Raka Muhammad Zaidan Khalifa; Rai Muhammad
Salman Raqila
Job:
- Lecturer at the School of Medicine, Padjadjaran University, Bandung
- Founder of the Volunteer Doctors movement
Achievement:
- Recipient of ASEAN Youth Award
- Recipient of the Best Achievement Award of Youth Pioneer from the Youth and Sports Ministry
- Recipient of Satu Indonesia Award from PT Astra International Tbk