ADRA Indonesia Op Shop
Maria, an English teacher originally from Manado had been an ADRA volunteer for 5 years before officially joining the team as a Church Relations Officer. She loves working with ADRA because of the programmes and activities we run and working with the Seventh Day Adventist Church Pathfinders teaching them about Community Service and Disaster Response Honours utilising her teaching skills. Maria says, “I love the feeling of when you help someone, it also gives you happiness.”
Always actively involved in fundraising activities and disaster responses, Maria was instrumental in starting ADRA Indonesia’s first Op-shop in September 2021. “It was challenging to get started,” she said, “We were in the middle of the Covid-19 restrictions and all the locations we surveyed were either too far, costly or not very crowded”. After committing it to prayer Maria and the team eventually found the ideal location, in a traditional market, close to the office, and also affordable in price.
For every customer that comes into the shop, Maria takes the time to explain the vision and mission of ADRA. Most people from the majority Muslim community have never heard of ADRA and love the fact that all the profits go towards disaster response and community development, many vowing to tell their neighbours all about it and returning to buy again. Maria says “the buyers love that the prices are affordable and even the Head of the market has been in a few times to buy clothes”.
Maria hopes that the small shop can continue to grow and maintain profitability over the coming years and that more volunteers will get involved with ADRA and their emergency responses. She can see that with the support of the churches there is an opportunity to replicate this shop in other suburbs over the coming years. ADRA would like to thank ADRA Australia for their support and also the Jakarta Local Conference churches that have been supporting us through donated goods. We also give thanks and attribute all our success to God who continues to bless us in our work.
