Our impact, their voices

The Voice of the Silent: A social campaign to promote inclusive and equal employment opportunities

The new company member of the Indonesia Business and Disability Network (IBDN), Burger King Indonesia, shares benefits gained by employing people with disabilities. The IBDN is supported by the ILO, Ministry of Manpower and the Indonesia Employers’ Association (Apindo).

Feature | Jakarta, Indonesia | 10 December 2020
With a big smile, Debby is greeting and serving customers at one of the Burger King stores in Indonesia. “I love talking to new people and my favourite part at Burger King is being a counter keeper,” she said in sign language.

Debby is also one of 100+ crew members with hearing and speech disabilities, across Burger King stores in Bali, Makassar and Jakarta. She skilfully manages her works and is popular among regular customers. “She is amazing. I do not have to tell my order. She knows it by heart and she works fast,” told one of the customers.

“We started the hiring process towards the end of 2018. It required us to build employment and training procedures from scratch. However, as we hired more crew members with disabilities, we found that, as shown in our guest satisfaction survey, our special stores performed significantly better."

Frida Marpaung, General Manager Human Resource at Burger King Indonesia
The story of Debby is captured in a video campaign of Burger King Indonesia, shown by Frida Marpaung, General Manager Human Resource at Burger King Indonesia, during the relaunch of Indonesia Business and Disability Network (IBDN) in Jakarta on 3 December. Burger King Indonesia is one of 75 new companies and institutions joining the IBDN to promote inclusive workplace and equal employment opportunity

“We started the hiring process towards the end of 2018. It required us to build employment and training procedures from scratch. However, as we hired more crew members with disabilities, we found that, as shown in our guest satisfaction survey, our special stores performed significantly better,” said Frida.

A sign language for the words “Burger King” outside a Burger King establishment in Indonesia.
To strengthen this inclusive initiative, the Burger King Indonesia has developed #SunyiBersuara, the “Voice of the Silent”, an initiative for companies and individuals to be the voice of the silent. Promoting inclusivity and equal opportunities, especially for the deaf and mute community, this initiative was launched in tandem with the revitalization of IBDN and the commemoration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Building a better future and inclusive society depends on our actions today. Indonesia business and disability network are a group of like-minded companies that promote the employment of workers with disabilities."

Kazutoshi Chatani Employment specialist of the ILO Jakarta who also acts as the representative of the IBDN secretariat.
The company also publishes #SunyiBersuara tool-kit, providing a clear guidance on hiring people with disabilities by focusing on four key steps: education on different types of disabilities, understanding the needs of your organization, reaching out to selected parties who can help with hiring and training, contacts for NGOs supporting disabled people and stakeholders.

“Building a better future and inclusive society depends on our actions today. Indonesia business and disability network are a group of like-minded companies that promote the employment of workers with disabilities,” said Kazutoshi Chatani, Employment specialist of the ILO Jakarta who also acts as the representative of the IBDN secretariat.


The IBDN is a unique employer-led initiative that works to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in workplaces nationwide. The IBDN was established in 2016 by five founding members: PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk, PT L’Oréal Indonesia, PT Standard Chartered Indonesia, PT TetraPak Stainless Engineering and PT Trans Retail Indonesia.

The re-launch of the IBDN is marked with the signing of joint commitment by the ILO, the Ministry of Manpower and the Indonesia Employers’ Association (Apindo), highlighting the collaboration among government, private sector and relevant organizations to advance the rights of people with disabilities, upholds non-discrimination principles, and advocates equal opportunities and treatment.

IBDN has the mission to encourage business communities in Indonesia to be more inclusive and conducive to diversity, be it through exchange of information and experiences, or through sustainable and mutually beneficial programs of collaboration between companies and other relevant entities. The establishment of the IBDN is inspired by existing initiatives within companies in Indonesia and the ILO’s Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN).