Lima Sekawan Fundraises for ABILITAS.ID’s KITA Project!

By Christie Pardede

Lima Sekawan, which literally means five friends in Indonesian, teamed with ABILITAS.ID to raise money to fund our latest project, KITA Project, a virtual graphic design, and illustration training program for young people with disabilities. Through this project, ABILITAS.ID will bring in a professional graphic designer, digital illustrator, and a team of mentors to help students improve their skills, while also providing tailored support in specific areas that they need.

Lima Sekawan consists of Albert, Claudia, Fernando, Gabriella, and Aufar. They met while studying at University in the UK and they have been friends ever since. The idea to do fundraising first came about from their awareness of the importance of keeping a healthy lifestyle particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic, but more than that, they all wanted to ban together to give back to their home country, Indonesia, with what they have right now which is their time and energy.

Together, Lima Sekawan set a target to complete a collective distance of 600 km through either cycling or running and a donation target of £3,000. The idea is, for every 1 km covered, they will seek £5 of donation. They have set up a GoFundMe page so their friends, family or anyone can take part in the fundraising with them. When we asked why opened a public fundraising page, they responded that they understand the power of social media to spread ideas, as well as to reach out to a wider audience, even globally. On top of that, it is super convenient to do!

Speaking of the power of social media, we got connected through Lima Sekawan through Instagram! Lima Sekawan were looking for a cause to team up with and they found ABILITAS.ID’s Instagram page. They then reached out to our co-founders, Christella and Radhe, who shared about their passion to empower youth with disabilities and the rest is history! We are most grateful for these friends’ hearts who understood the difficulty of getting an opportunity in life, let alone when one is disadvantaged by his or her physical body. We believe, this shared passion and empathy is how we get to team up together.

Some may wonder whether doing a fundraising during a challenging time like this would discourage these friends or their donors to participate, but to our surprise, the answer is a resounding no. Lima Sekawan was even initially worried whether they could pass £1,000 in donation as many people they know are financially impacted by COVID-19; however, this pandemic didn’t discourage people from taking part in this cause.

At the end of the campaign Lima Sekawan managed to fundraise a total of £2,532.47! What an achievement indeed! This fundraising event is Lima Sekawan’s first collective fundraising program but they have assured us that this won’t be their last!