Indonesian Earthquake
Save the Children’s emergency response team was still helping families in Java recover from the May 27 earthquake that killed 5,700 people when the ground of that densely populated island heaved again in midsummer. The 7.7-magnitude earthquake on July 17 once more displaced tens of thousands of people, killing more than 350. It also generated a mudslide that inundated 1,800 houses in four villages in the Porong sub-district.
Save the Children, present for 30 years in Indonesia, had already targeted 40,000 survivors for assistance, including 30,000 children. Many children were begging on the streets in the affected areas. With a successful emergency appeal to the public, Save the Children teams have now established 50 safe-play areas and 97 tent schools, providing 594 blackboards and 1,200 sets of school equipment and furniture. They have also distributed more than 5,000 of the plastic mats that serve as floor coverings, bedding and tableware in the overall effort to create some semblance of normalcy for displaced youngsters.
More than 150 volunteers and local government officials were trained on child-protection methods and basic psycho-social care for traumatized children, and 784 teachers and partners received material on psycho-social treatment. Emergency preparedness is now integrated into the national school curriculum, thanks to Save the Children and its special Temporary School Shelter manual for teachers.
Some 125,000 households in Yogyakarta, or about half the houses that were severely damaged or destroyed there, are likely to receive little or no government assistance because of funding shortfalls. To help, Save the Children contracted for100 Emergency Tent Boxes and distributed more than 10,000 shelter kits, plus 6,500 kits of household essentials.
While Indonesians are returning to their normal lives, they are not yet safe. Save the Children’s team keeps a watchful eye on Mount Merapi, which has been spewing ash, hot gases and lava over central Java for months. And no one has forgotten the tsunami that ravaged the country’s western coastlines in December 2004. Save the Children remains committed to the long-term safety and recovery of Indonesia’s children, whatever their restless land may do.
You can help Save the Children respond to emergencies like these that put at great risk the survival, protection, and well-being of significant numbers of children. By contributing to the Children’s Emergency Fund, you help us to respond immediately to children and families who urgently need our assistance when disasters strike.
