A Fellowship Built Around Service

In Indonesia, the name PERKASIH is closely associated with a simple but demanding conviction: people who are poor, abandoned, disabled, or excluded should never be left to face life alone.

The organization’s full Indonesian name is Persaudaraan Kasih, a phrase that may be translated as “Fellowship of Love,” “Fellowship of Charity,” or “Confraternity of Charity.” Its members come from different professions and walks of life, but they share a commitment to supporting some of the country’s most vulnerable communities.

PERKASIH is a Christian lay association of volunteers, professionals, donors, and benefactors who place their time, expertise, relationships, and financial resources at the service of the ministries of ALMA and the Bhakti Luhur Foundation.

Its work has brought doctors, businesspeople, families, community leaders, and ordinary citizens into a common mission: to help ensure that people living with disabilities, serious illness, poverty, abandonment, or social exclusion receive not only material assistance, but also dignity, companionship, and opportunities to develop their gifts.

Understanding the Name

The organization is properly known as: PERKASIH — Persaudaraan Kasih

Although “Fellowship of Love” is a natural translation of Persaudaraan Kasih, the organization’s documents have also used the English expression “Confraternity of Charity.” Each version points toward the same essential identity: a community formed around bonds of fraternity and active love.

The Vision of Father Paul Hendrikus Janssen

PERKASIH emerged from the life and mission of Father Paul Hendrikus Janssen, C.M., a Dutch priest of the Congregation of the Mission.

A spiritual son of St. Vincent de Paul, Janssen spent much of his life developing pastoral, educational, and social responses to the needs of people who were often neglected by society.

Indonesian Catholic sources identify him as the founder or principal initiator of several institutions, including the Bhakti Luhur Foundation, the women’s and men’s branches of ALMA, PERKASIH, and the Indonesian Pastoral Institute in Malang.

He established Bhakti Luhur in 1959, initially in Madiun. Its center was later transferred to Malang, which became the heart of a broad network of residences, educational initiatives, rehabilitation services, pastoral programs, and community-based ministries.

According to the most specific historical account currently available, Father Janssen founded PERKASIH on January 30, 2004. The association offered a structure through which laypeople from different professional and social backgrounds could take part in the mission of ALMA and Bhakti Luhur.

Father Janssen died on April 20, 2017. He was buried beside the Paulo Chapel at the Bhakti Luhur complex in Malang, close to the people with disabilities and vulnerable children who had been at the center of his missionary life.

ALMA and Bhakti Luhur: The Mission PERKASIH Supports

PERKASIH cannot be understood apart from ALMA and the Bhakti Luhur Foundation.

Bhakti Luhur is the broader social and charitable structure through which many of the ministries are organized. The ALMA Sisters and Brothers provide the lifelong human and missionary commitment that sustains much of the daily service.

In Indonesia, the women are generally known as the Suster ALMA or ALMA Putri, while the men are called the Bruder ALMA or ALMA Putra.

Their mission has focused especially on people who are:

• living in poverty;
• abandoned or without adequate family support;
• physically or intellectually disabled;
• affected by multiple disabilities;
• sick or in need of medical treatment;
• elderly or socially isolated;
• excluded from ordinary educational, health, or social systems.

The broader ALMA and Bhakti Luhur network has developed services such as residential homes, special education, rehabilitation, physical therapy, psychological assistance, vocational training, community-based rehabilitation, medical care, and pastoral accompaniment.

PERKASIH surrounds this work with a wider network of lay solidarity. Its members help provide the resources, professional skills, public visibility, and community relationships that enable the mission to grow.

More Than a Fundraising Organization

Although financial support is an important part of PERKASIH’s work, the association is not simply a fundraising body.

Its model is based on participation. Members are encouraged to offer whatever they can bring: professional expertise, time, organizational experience, personal contacts, medical knowledge, material resources, or the ability to raise awareness.

Doctors and health professionals have assisted with examinations, therapies, medical procedures, and surgery. Other members have helped with transportation, hospital costs, equipment, education, rehabilitation programs, and the daily needs of ALMA and Bhakti Luhur communities.

A 2017 Catholic report described how PERKASIH Surabaya helped arrange medical treatment and operations for children served by Bhakti Luhur. In some cases, PERKASIH helped cover transportation and medical expenses while physicians or hospitals reduced or waived their customary fees.

This collaborative approach reflects one of the organization’s central insights: no single institution can answer every form of vulnerability alone. Effective service requires a network of people willing to share their skills and responsibilities.

Empowering Those Who Have Been Overlooked

The available PERKASIH guidelines summarize its vision with a striking expression: “Empowering the unempowered.”

This vision moves beyond the idea of offering charity only as temporary relief. PERKASIH seeks to help people who have been pushed to the margins become active participants in their own lives and communities.

Its mission includes supporting the talents, abilities, interests, and potential of children and adults with special needs. It also aims to build humanitarian, social, pastoral, professional, and economic networks that can offer more lasting forms of support.

In this understanding, a person with a disability is not merely a recipient of assistance. Each person has gifts, aspirations, relationships, and a contribution to make.

PERKASIH therefore works not only to provide services, but also to change the way society looks at people who are frequently underestimated or ignored.

A Spirituality Rooted in Christ

PERKASIH describes itself as an explicitly Christian fellowship.

Its guidelines present Jesus Christ as the foundation of its identity and service. Members are invited to follow Christ by drawing close to people who experience poverty, physical suffering, emotional distress, disability, or spiritual need.

The organization’s reported motto is: Pro Deo et Caritas, Cor Unum in Caritate

It may be rendered in English as: For God and for Charity, One Heart in Love.

The association’s logo is described as having a cross at its center, surrounded by interconnected elements of different colors. These elements represent the diversity of professions, personalities, talents, and backgrounds gathered within one fellowship.

The cross expresses the common foundation that unites them. Christ is presented as both the source of their service and the bond that brings different people together.

This spiritual identity gives PERKASIH’s work a meaning beyond philanthropy. Service is understood as an encounter with Christ, particularly in those whose lives have been marked by poverty, disability, abandonment, or exclusion.

Following the Spirit of St. Vincent de Paul

PERKASIH’s Vincentian identity is not merely historical. It is explicitly present in its spirituality and understanding of mission.

Father Janssen belonged to the Congregation of the Mission, founded by St. Vincent de Paul. PERKASIH’s organizational guidelines state that the association seeks to make the Gospel real and effective for people who are poor today, following the example and spirit of St. Vincent de Paul.

This Vincentian inspiration can be seen in several characteristics of the organization:

• attention to those most neglected by society;
• recognition of Christ in people who are poor and vulnerable;
• practical and organized charity;
• collaboration between religious communities and laypeople;
• respect for professional competence;
• concern for both immediate needs and long-term development.

Members who knew Father Janssen recalled his teaching that people who were poor or disabled should be recognized as “Christ in disguise.” They were not to be approached as passive objects of generosity, but as persons whose dignity placed a claim upon the Christian community.

This also recalls a central Vincentian idea: those who are poor are not simply beneficiaries of service. In a profound spiritual sense, they become teachers and “masters” of those who serve them.

A Network of Local Communities

PERKASIH appears to operate through a central coordinating structure and a network of regional or local communities.

Its guidelines indicate that local groups may be created wherever ALMA and Bhakti Luhur carry out their ministries. These groups maintain a close relationship with local ALMA communities while mobilizing volunteers, donors, professionals, and families in the surrounding area.

The organization has been documented in cities and regions including:

• Malang;
• Surabaya;
• Jakarta;
• Bogor;
• Depok;
• Tangerang;
• Bekasi.

Its actual presence may extend beyond these locations through the wider geographical network of Bhakti Luhur and ALMA.

This decentralized structure allows each PERKASIH community to respond to local needs while remaining connected to the organization’s broader identity and mission.

PERKASIH in Surabaya

One of the most visible local communities is PERKASIH Bhakti Luhur Surabaya.

The Surabaya group has presented itself as a fellowship of volunteers, board members, donors, and professionals supporting the work of ALMA and Bhakti Luhur.

The community became particularly known for helping children obtain medical treatment and surgery. Its activities demonstrate how the PERKASIH model works in practice: individuals and institutions contribute different pieces of a larger response.

One person may help with transportation, another with funding, another with professional medical care, and another with coordination. Together, these contributions can make treatment possible for a child whose family or community would otherwise lack access.

The Growth of PERKASIH in Jabodetabek

On May 7, 2019, a PERKASIH community was formally inaugurated for the Jabodetabek metropolitan area.

The name Jabodetabek combines the names of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi. The inauguration took place during a Eucharistic celebration at the Bhakti Luhur Foundation in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

The event brought together ALMA Sisters, central PERKASIH officers, supporters of Bhakti Luhur, and invited guests. Father Jozef Kurkowski, S.C.J., presided at the Eucharist.

Sister Cicilia Rukiyah, ALMA, who was identified as head of the Jakarta branch of the Bhakti Luhur Foundation, expressed the hope that the new community would strengthen and encourage the ALMA Sisters in their service.

The establishment of the Jabodetabek community showed that PERKASIH was not intended to remain centered in one city. It was conceived as a network capable of growing alongside the ministries of ALMA and Bhakti Luhur.

Part of Indonesia’s Vincentian Landscape

In July 2024, the official website of the Congregation of the Mission, Province of Indonesia, included Persaudaraan Kasih — PERKASIH among communities associated with a Vincentian formation initiative.

It appeared alongside organizations such as Kerabat Kasih dan Misi, Vincentian Marian Youth, and other groups connected with the Indonesian Vincentian environment.

This confirms that PERKASIH is recognized in practice as part of the broader network inspired by the Vincentian charism in Indonesia.

An Extensive Legacy of Care

Historical reports describe the broader Bhakti Luhur and ALMA network as a major presence in Indonesia’s service to people with disabilities and other vulnerable communities.

A 2017 Catholic report, drawing on data from 2012, referred to:

• more than 400 social-service residences or units;
• approximately 40 rehabilitation centers;
• vocational training and therapy programs;
• counseling and psychological services;
• ministries in more than 40 Indonesian cities;
• more than 700 ALMA Sisters and Brothers;
• more than 5,000 children and elderly people receiving assistance.

These figures are historical and describe the overall ALMA and Bhakti Luhur network, not PERKASIH alone. They should not be treated as current statistics.

Nevertheless, they show the scale of the mission that PERKASIH was created to support. The association stands within a much larger story of long-term care, education, rehabilitation, pastoral presence, and community inclusion.

One Heart in Love

PERKASIH represents a distinctive expression of the Vincentian tradition in Indonesia.

It brings religious communities and laypeople into a shared mission. It connects spirituality with professional competence, charity with empowerment, and personal generosity with organized social action.

Its story began with the vision of Father Paul Hendrikus Janssen, but it has continued through the commitment of volunteers, health professionals, donors, families, ALMA members, and local communities.

At the heart of that story is a belief that those whom society overlooks are not burdens to be managed or problems to be solved. They are persons of sacred dignity, capable of friendship, growth, contribution, and love.

PERKASIH’s mission can therefore be summarized not simply as support for an institution, but as the creation of a fellowship: people from different backgrounds becoming one heart in love, so that no vulnerable person is abandoned.