TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Indonesia’s BTS ‘ARMY’ raises Rp 447m for Kanjuruhan victims
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
United in grief: Indonesia’s BTS 'ARMY' fan club posted this graphic on the Kita Bisa crowdfunding page to raise funds for the victims of the Kanjuruhan Stadium tragedy in Malang, East Java. (Kita Bisa/BTS ARMY PROJECT LOMBOK) (Kita Bisa/BTS ARMY PROJECT LOMBOK)
K
nown for their solidarity and philanthropy in times of need, the Indonesian fans of K-pop group BTS, who call themselves “ARMY”, have raised funds to help those affected by the Kanjuruhan Stadium tragedy, which occurred in Malang, East Java, on Saturday.
Using the Kita Bisa online crowdfunding platform, the group raised more than Rp 447 million (US$29,316) in just over a day, exceeding the first goal of raising Rp 75 million and Tuesday’s updated goal of reaching Rp 400 million.
The fundraising campaign, which opened on Monday and was originally slated to run for 13 days, has now been closed until further notice.
“The victims who died in the Arema versus Persebaya match on Saturday […] are not just a number. There are people who lost their spouses or children,” reads the statement by BTS ARMY Project Lombok on the fundraising page.
“No football match is worth human lives,” the page’s tagline reads.
The ARMY members said they would give the money directly to victims’ families as “business capital for those who have lost the provider of their family as well as educational compensation for the children they leave behind”.
The disaster occurred after fans stormed the field and police fired tear gas into the crowd and the stands. At least 125 people died and hundreds of others were injured in the ensuing stampede.
The BTS ARMY is no stranger to philanthropic causes. The South Korean boy band’s legions of fans around the world famously raised US$1 million for the Black Lives Matter movement in just a day in 2020, and the Indonesian branch raised funds for food aid for motorcycle taxi drivers in 2021.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo himself has also ordered that the victims’ families be provided Rp 50 million (US$3,279) each in compensation.
More from The Weekender
Jakarta’s padel moment
From FOMO to full-blown obsession, padel has captured the city. What comes next may depend less on courts and more on the communities that grow around them.
The battle over memory
And why the government’s plan to rewrite its history books should alarm us all.
Are younger workers getting something right about work?
As micro-retirements gain traction, Gen Z and young millennials are challenging traditional ideas of ambition, success and when it’s okay to pause.
