Gina Mardiana Talks About Her Daily Life
Gina Mardiana Putri (31) is a Sponsorship Officer at Wahana Visi Indonesia's operational office for Sigi, Palu and Donggala districts in Central Sulawesi. The mother of one toddler usually spends her working hours in the office from 08:00 to 16:00 WITA. But it is not uncommon for her to work overtime or on weekends. Instead of feeling burdened by the dynamic working hours, Gina feels comforted because it is during these times that she can visit the children in the assisted villages. "Because my current position has a lot of activities in the office, when I can go to the field and play together with the children, it's a fun thing. I get to experience first-hand how humanitarian work is," she says.
As a child, the woman who grew up in Palu, Central Sulawesi, actually wanted to be a bank employee. When invited by her father to visit a bank, Gina liked the neat and friendly profile of bank employees when serving customers. However, Gina's studies and career did not lead to banking.
Gina played with children from the assisted village.
"When I was in college, I was even active in serving students through the student organization PERKANTAS (Interuniversity Christian Fellowship). So when I got a job at WVI, I was very grateful to be able to join a humanitarian organization because what I used to do in service I can also do in work. Namely, serving the most vulnerable children," she said.
In addition to being able to serve through work, Gina also feels that working in a humanitarian organization can be an opportunity to develop her own capacity. Gina used to be a person who always felt insecure about speaking in public. However, working in the humanitarian field certainly requires public speaking skills. Because of the demands of this job, Gina is now much more confident and skilled in public speaking.
In addition, Gina was also exposed to the community empowerment programs that WVI implements in the assisted villages. One of them is the toddler health program, especially about exclusive breastfeeding. "Through WVI, I can also learn to become a breastfeeding counselor and this has made me enthusiastic to be able to provide breast milk for my child until the age of 2 years," she said.
Interacting with various community empowerment programs has also aroused Gina's curiosity. Currently, she is interested in programs related to the nutritional status of children under five. In the future, she wants to study health issues and nutritional status of toddlers in more depth.
An interesting moment also came when Gina took care of the correspondence between the children and their sponsors. As a Sponsorship Officer, Gina is tasked with ensuring that correspondence runs smoothly, on time, and according to standards. Every letter, both from the child and the sponsor, Gina will check and ensure the appropriateness of the content, only then can the letter be sent. This is due to the safety and protection of the child. "I love it when I can read how the child tells something to the sponsor. And when the sponsor replies. But I'm also sad when I find out how children are still being abused, or when they have to get married while still a child," she said.
Gina hopes that every humanitarian organization, including WVI, can continue to fight to overcome children's issues. The programs or assistance implemented can make children live more prosperous and quality lives. Let us also support this hope. If you are interested in becoming part of the Wahana Visi Indonesia family, please visit the webpage https://wahanavisi.org/id/ayo-terlibat/relawan or https://wahanavisi.org/id/tentang/karir. Meanwhile, if you want to participate through the child sponsorship program, please visit the web page https://wahanavisi.org/id/sponsor-anak/anak.
