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Muhammad Fadli

Before visiting her father's grave, Yuni picks flowers from the bougainvillea tree in the front yard of her family's home. In keeping with custom, she scatters the petals over the grave and pours water over it.

Several times a week, Yuni and her mother Nisma make the two-kilometer journey via motorbike to Langlang’s grave. The cemetery is on the way to Yuni and her sister Try's school.

Nearly 10.4 million children worldwide have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19. Yuni Folani is one of them. Her 56-year-old father, Langlang Buana, died in June 2021 due to the coronavirus and kidney failure in Pasaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Students resume in-person classes at Elementary School No. 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia. More than 600 schools across the city reopened on a limited basis in fall 2021, offering face-to-face classes three days a week with strict health protocols in place. Schools also restricted the number of students who could attend in person, with half of each class still learning from home via video conference. Nadiem Makarim, the Indonesian minister of education, pushed for a return to classrooms, telling parliament that COVID-19 lockdowns caused “learning losses that have permanent impacts.”

Relatives visit a loved one’s fresh grave at Rorotan Public Cemetery in Cilincing, North Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 21, 2021. The cemetery, which is dedicated to COVID-19 victims, opened in March. Even though it can hold up to 7,200 people, the cemetery filled up fast during the surge in cases caused by the Delta variant—which made Indonesia an epicenter of the pandemic. In response, Jakarta's government planned to add more land to the 25-hectare cemetery.

Students in Jakarta, Indonesia, returned to school in September wearing masks and obeying stringent health protocols. The move was motivated by a “decline in learning achievement” during the pandemic, said Nadiem Makarim, former Minister of Education. “Many children have dropped out of school, especially women.”

Desti Firdamayanti rests in her home in Kenari sub-district, Central Jakarta in January 2021. Her husband, who works as a newspaper deliveryman, saw his pay drop from £70 a month to only £20 during the pandemic. With their first child due in only a few weeks, the couple worried about their financial situation despite receiving the government’s social assistance benefits.

Workers lower a COVID-19 victim into the earth at Rorotan Public Cemetery on July 21, 2021. During the peak of the latest wave, workers filled the cemetery around the clock while tending to a never-ending line of ambulances and hearses—some with as many as four bodies inside.

Volunteers with Foodbank of Indonesia unload and store 20 tons bags of rice in a school classroom in Cipulir, South Jakarta, in December 2020. Today the non-profit is struggling to acquire food donations from cash-strapped businesses and protect its volunteers from the recent outbreak. Four team members died from COVID-19 in the past month alone.

Fishermen and workers at the port of Muara Angke, a densely populated area in North Jakarta, receive free meals from Wonder Food Indonesia in December 2020. The non-profit, established in March 2019, provides up to 3,500 meals each week to mainly low income communities. Due to recent COVID-19 restrictions, Wonder Food Indonesia stopped providing food for three weeks this month.