Several families who attended a gathering in Jakarta which was organized by Hendrik Wowor the Agape Founder recently, feeling like a big family reunion. Coming from the same background where their children slip into the well of drugs, which makes half of our lives dark, and even don’t know what to do.
It still remains in our memories, when Komjen Pol. Anang Iskandar still served as Head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) before being replaced by Komjen Pol. Drs. Heru Winarko, S.H., Anang Iskandar said about drugs and Indonesia’s status is in a drug emergency, around 50 people die every day due to narcotics and illegal drug abuse, with economic and social losses reaching Rp 63 trillion per year.
Currently, Indonesia is in a drug emergency with a high alarming mortality rate, which is 100.000 annually due to drug abuse, based on BNN report as of September 2020. This figure has increased by 28.8% from the previous year and this mortality rate is the highest point due to drug abuse in Indonesia.
Indonesia’s status of a drug emergency has forced the government to impose a Reporting Recipient Institution (IPWL) for every institution that organizes rehabilitation for drug addicts. IPWL is an institutional system established based on Government Regulation Number 25 of 2011 concerning the Implementation of Compulsory Reporting for Narcotics Addicts. This institution is an implementation of Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, especially article 55. The Agape Foundation is one of the legal institutions that has become a Reporting Obligatory Recipient Institution (IPWL) and has partnered with the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs since 2015.
As a person who has been in drug rehabilitation works for two decades, Hendrik Wowor, a calm middle-aged man, feels very sad about the existence data on the Prevalence of Drug Users and Addicts in Indonesia, which has reached 3.6 million people (BNN RI Survey as of 5 Dec 2019). When reading more, it is sad that the types of Narcotics that have entered Indonesia have reached 803 types and only about 47 types are regulated by the Law & PERMENKES RI/20/2018. It is a huge homework for social institutions that are trying to reduce the number of living victims and those who are died due to drug abuse / psychotropic drugs.
BNN targets is to be able to rehabilitate 100,000 people every year to suppress the growth rate of people who are exposed to drug addicts, because new types of drugs will always appear. BNN has detected the existence of 48 drug dealer networks throughout Indonesia, and the death penalty is the only solution to provide a deterrent effect to drug dealers and Indonesia has established the death penalty as a solution to dealing with drug dealers.
Hendrik Wowor is the founder of the Agape foundation which is located in a shady calm place, surrounded by big trees in Cisarua Bogor, an ideal place for healing. At first, it was his sincere intention to help a drug addict patient, and on the advice of a friend, Hendrik established the Agape Foundation in 2000 with the aim of helping brothers and sisters who have become addicts. Hendrik uses a holistic approach in treating his patients, and over time, he finds many addicts who were initially used as drug couriers by drug dealers in the Bogor area and its surroundings even since they were still in junior high school and coincidentally they came from family living around Cisarua. Agape sincerely and happily provides services for public who really need help regardless of class, creed or social strata, outside of their inpatients.
Until now Hendrik and his staff have treated hundreds of patients one after another and currently the patient rooms are inadequate and need a lot of renovation. Hendrik dreams of building a better and representative drug addicts rehabilitation place for the recovery of drug addicts, so that they will feel more comfortable and not feel like they are in a rehabilitation center. So far Hendrik has started by building in a wider location, not far from the old building. Hendrik wants to realize his big dream comes true together with his friends who want to see Indonesia proud and smile again when he finds his former patients can rebuild their own country and their lives become bright again.
Hendrik’s hope in the future, it is necessary to bind a solid synergy between fellow Rehabilitation Institutions whose aim is to assist the country in solving drug problems. The Drug Law should be reviewed, so that the boundaries between victims and perpetrators are clearer. According to Hendrik, the drug victims are sick people, so they must be treated not imprisoned and the place for treatment is in rehabilitation centers, while the dealers can just go to the prison. There are around 190 Compulsory Reporting Recipient Institutions (IPWL) for drug rehabilitation homes under the Ministry of Social Affairs. Of course the capacity at the Directorate of Drugs at the Ministry of Social Affairs is not comparable to the number of Rehabilitation Institutions existence, the human resources that provide supervision must be very overwhelmed. “Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the role of non-government rehabilitation institutions,” said Hendrik.
The Agape Foundation provides 2 types of services; namely Inpatient Rehabilitation where there is a place provided, while Road Rehabilitation, there are consular officers who go directly to the field to provide education mostly to the street children. Patients who live in Agape’s Rehabilitation Center come from various ages, from teenagers to the elderly within 11 months of treatments.
“The big threats to the Indonesian people are Corruption, Terrorism and Drugs, and the biggest threat is drugs. Currently, my friends and I at the Agape Foundation are rehabilitating drug victims, online gambling, and patients with mental disorders, we are both praying and joining hands in dealing with the dangers of this drug†Hendrik closed the conversation while offering warm tea and a plate of fried bananas.
By Nia S. Amira is a distinguished author, journalist and linguist from Indonesia. She writes on cultural, international affairs, multicultarism and religious studies. Her articles have appeared in over thirty newspapers that are published in Europe, Asia and United States.
