A Year of Tokopedia’s Volunteering Journey

From teaching underprivileged youth in career and business to renovating an orphanage.

Indonesia is well-known for its warm societies that have a strong collaboration culture since centuries ago. At Tokopedia, our Nakama also show their strong values in cooperation through their good collaboration in work and various social activities.

Tokopedia’s CSR team initiated Nakamate, which stands for “Nakama to be mate”. Nakamate organized social activities that Nakama can participate in once every two months. Through Nakamate, Nakama can become friends or a partner with people and communities in need. There are various activities carried out under Nakamate, from teaching disadvantaged youth in career and business coaching, socializing healthy and safe behavior, and renovating the orphanage.

To celebrate International Volunteer Day, we’re recapping Nakamate’s activities in the past year. Have you joined any of these, Nakama?

Mentoring Children and Skill-Building for Youth

Tokopedia and Nara Kreatif foundation worked together to celebrate National Heroes Day through “Nakamate: Life for Sharing”. We held training for teenagers on how to be a professional in the workplace and how to use gadgets wisely and productively.

Nakama also volunteered as mentors for the children of Nara Kreatif. In addition to providing career guidance for teenagers, at the same time, Nakama also created some learning posts for the children to play and learn: Clean and Healthy Living Behavior, Roleplay in Avoiding Abduction, Indonesian Heroes Knowledge Contest, How to Brush Our Teeth, and Introducing “Gobak Sodor” Game.

“We are happy to share our knowledge with children in Nara Kreatif, and we hope we can enliven their enthusiasm so that they will continue to believe in their dreams and have the grit to fight for those dreams,” said Siti, one of Tokopedia Nakama.

Celebrating Valentine’s Day by Volunteering and Spreading Love

In Tokopedia, Nakama also means friend or family. We know that it is important to spread love amongst fellow family members. We have many ways of expressing love: by giving chocolates, gifts, and even sharing your passion and happiness with others.

In February, Tokopedia held Nakamate to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the community in need at Regional Employment Training Center (PPKD) South Jakarta. We held a mentoring session for PPKD South Jakarta participants about career and business.

“I am happy that I can share my career knowledge with these friends in PPKD. They also seemed enthusiastic to participate in this event. Some of them said that they were very happy to have talked with Nakama about their future dream career,” said Gabriel, one of Tokopedia Nakama.

Renovating Home for Children in Asuwain Timor Orphanage

One of the many social initiatives that we did was called Nakama Beraksi, which stands for Berbagi Kasih untuk Indonesia or Sharing Love for Indonesia. Many Nakama were sparing their valuable day off on the weekend to renovate the home of Children in Asuwain Timor Orphanage.

Nakama who participated were divided into several groups and in charge of different tasks, starting from painting walls, assembling furniture and cleaning the room. Some Nakama also took turns in preparing food and playing with the children.

Our CSR Team received many supports from PKPU Human Initiative in renovating several parts of the orphanage, including fixing the power outlets.

“This employee volunteering program can create a multiplier effect — not only we are giving back to the community, but we also engage the employee in a better way,” said Fardhan Ramzy, the Project Manager of Nakama Beraksi.

Motivating Children through Career Class and Confidence Class

In June, Tokopedia’s CSR held a Nakamate program with the theme “Painting the Dream”. During the activity, Nakama played and learned together with the children of the ISCO Foundation in professional classes and trained teenage students in self-confidence classes.

Through our interactions with the children, Nakama found that some ISCO children lacked access to multimedia content, such as TV. Even if they do have access, they are exposed to contents that do not fit their age category. There are no proper filters and guidance for scenes such as violence, conflict, and shows intended for adults, and they are consuming this on a daily basis.

Believing that the children need something more inspiring, Nakama encourage them to share stories about their dream career and their future, so it can foster their enthusiasm and motivation to dream and strive to achieve what they want to be in the future.

Celebrating A Decade of Tokopedia with Green Initiatives

In celebrating Tokopedia’s 10-year journey, Nakamate did another special activity around the environmental theme. Through “Urban Farm”, Tokopedia’s CSR introduced Urban Farming activity to Nakama and family who attended the Tokopedia 10th Anniversary in August.

From the Nakamate Urban Farm activities, more than 700 plants were collected in both hydroponic and potting media. In addition to carrying out CSR planting activities, Tokopedia also organized waste management in Tokopedia’s 10th Anniversary event which was attended by thousands of Nakama and families. In collaboration with Daur ID, more than 6 tons of plastic and organic waste were collected during the event.

Siti Fauziah, Senior Community Lead Tokopedia, explained how Tokopedia’s CSR program could facilitate Nakama’s social concerns. “Nakama can contribute to environmental issues with real action. For example, Nakama participated in this urban-farming activity so they can generate more oxygen to help to produce better air quality and to create a greener Jakarta.”