An elderly man’s dream of visiting the holy land of Mecca went up in flames in a house fire, but Indonesian netizens have restored that dream, and then some.
Arsyad, a 70-year-old scavenger from Tanete Rilau sub-district in the Barru Regency of South Sulawesi, became the talk of the internet in Indonesia after he recently experienced a grave misfortune. According to reports, his house was destroyed in a fire on Saturday, along with money he had saved to go on an Umrah pilgrimage totalling IDR2.5 million (US$175).
https://www.instagram.com/p/By1t9lvhDkb/
Arsyad had painstakingly earned the money by collecting scraps and plastic bottles to sell. Fortunately, he wasn’t at home when the fire started because he was working as a cleaner at a nearby school.
Arsyad’s story went viral thanks to several users who shared his story on Twitter and Instagram. In one thread below, the user explained that Arsyad earned around IDR2,500 for each kilogram of plastic waste he collected.
https://twitter.com/littlegurllll/status/1140526495548358656
Numerous individuals and companies have donated money to Arsyad. One unnamed company has also reportedly decided to pay for his Umrah pilgrimage.
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByzdTdrH3_B/?utm_source=ig_embed
As for the matter of his house, Indonesian online news portal Kumparan has opened a fundraiser on the crowdfunding platform Kitabisa to support the rebuilding of Arsyad’s home. They have raised more than IDR150 million as of this afternoon, already far surpassing the fundraiser’s IDR100 million target.
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