Yogyakarta, 21 April 2020 - In commemoration of Kartini Day, Women Study Center

Yogyakarta, 21 April 2020 - In commemoration of Kartini Day, Women Study Center UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta (UPNVYK) in collaboration with the Indonesian Communication Science Journal Publishers Association (APJIKI) held an online seminar in communication media Zoomentitled COVID-19 Resilient Disaster through the Family on Tuesday (4/21) afternoon.

The activity that was held in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak was attended by 113 participants coming from various cities in Indonesia, namely Bali, Malang, Surabaya, Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Yogyakarta and even from Malaysia. Three speakers, namely the Chairperson of the UPNVYK Women Study center, Dr. Puji Lestari, the 2nd Chairperson of  APJIKI from University of Prof. Dr. Moestopo (Religious) (UPDMB), Prof. Rajab Ritonga, as well as the APJIKI Administrator from Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Dr. Lintang Ratri Rahmiaji.

In the discussion, Puji emphasized the importance of family communication in the context of dealing with the disaster, especially in carrying out the work routine from Home or Work From Home (WFH) and School from Home (SFH). "Family communication is very important because the family is the first school for the children", said Puji in her presentation.

Puji also initiated the concept of heart-to-heart communication which can be an alternative for families to having the routines during the COVID-19 pandemic. "With the concept of heart to heart, families will strengthen each other, help and understand each other, as well as increase sympathy and empathy, and reduce emotions”, she said again.

In line with Puji, the 2nd Chairperson of APJIKI from UPDMB, Prof. Rajab Ritonga said that the family was the frontline in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the family's economic security. He said that the current economic level varies, so the resilience of underprivileged families is a challenge.

"(At present)  willing to stay at home, the income is inadequate, but going out, there is COVID-19", Rajab said. Therefore, Rajab reaffirmed the family as the most important unit. He also advised families to reorganize their finances, including those of middle class families so that they remained resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Make peace with stress

On the same occasion, the APJIKI Administrator of Diponergoro University, Dr. Lintang Ratri Rahmiaji also shared how to deal with stress during the pandemic. According to her observations, Lintang said that a number of people are now beginning to complain of their boredom and are showing psychomatic symptoms due to the too long undergoing WFH routines and pressure on the news about COVID-19.

"Many things are stressful and bored, for example it is usually because they start to worry when reading Corona news, sharing homework with husband or wife, having many schoolwork for children and not all parents have sufficient competency to become teachers, as well as other problems that can occur at home”, said Lintang.

Therefore, continued Lintang, it needs a good stress management by reducing social media consumption, especially in the family environment. "Reducing the use of social media or diet media is important, and many people are turning to health and sports articles now”, she said again.

Lintang also shared her research results with 30 informants. She found the use of Zoom, Netflix, and other entertainment media increases dramatically during the WFH period. This is, according to Lintang, reasonable because the media is an alternative way in reducinge the effects of stress and saturation. Moreover, the informants became more often doing new hobbies such as gardening, cooking, and exercising at home.

The interesting thing, according to Lintang, stepping on the 6th week of WFH is the reduced talk about COVID-19 on social media around her friends in the past weeks and move on to more interesting hobbies.

The seminar was closed by giving prizes to participants of the seminar for givint the best questions. The speakers hope that the family can survive in the middle of the uncertain end of the COVID-19 pandemic, of course by having good communication within the family.

UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta (UPNVYK) in collaboration with the Indonesian Communication Science Journal Publishers Association (APJIKI) held an online seminar in communication media Zoomentitled COVID-19 Resilient Disaster through the Family on Tuesday (4/21) afternoon.

The activity that was held in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak was attended by 113 participants coming from various cities in Indonesia, namely Bali, Malang, Surabaya, Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Yogyakarta and even from Malaysia. Three speakers, namely the Chairperson of the UPNVYK Women Study center, Dr. Puji Lestari, the 2nd Chairperson of  APJIKI from University of Prof. Dr. Moestopo (Religious) (UPDMB), Prof. Rajab Ritonga, as well as the APJIKI Administrator from Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Dr. Lintang Ratri Rahmiaji.

In the discussion, Puji emphasized the importance of family communication in the context of dealing with the disaster, especially in carrying out the work routine from Home or Work From Home (WFH) and School from Home (SFH). "Family communication is very important because the family is the first school for the children", said Puji in her presentation.

Puji also initiated the concept of heart-to-heart communication which can be an alternative for families to having the routines during the COVID-19 pandemic. "With the concept of heart to heart, families will strengthen each other, help and understand each other, as well as increase sympathy and empathy, and reduce emotions”, she said again.

In line with Puji, the 2nd Chairperson of APJIKI from UPDMB, Prof. Rajab Ritonga said that the family was the frontline in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the family's economic security. He said that the current economic level varies, so the resilience of underprivileged families is a challenge.

"(At present)  willing to stay at home, the income is inadequate, but going out, there is COVID-19", Rajab said. Therefore, Rajab reaffirmed the family as the most important unit. He also advised families to reorganize their finances, including those of middle class families so that they remained resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.