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Earthquake in Indonesia and South Asia: Thousands of Children Left Homeless Following Major Earthquake
Westport, CT (Monday, March 29) -
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The island of Simeulue where Save the Children delivered desperately needed food and other supplies to children and their families after the tsunami in December. Save the Children is focusing its latest emergency response efforts on Nias and Simeulue—two islands off the coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia--where hundreds of people were killed and many homes destroyed. Nias has a population of over 440,000 and Simeulue a population of 78,000. |
Save the Children is moving quickly to provide food, water, medicine and shelter to thousands of Indonesian children and their families impacted by a massive earthquake that rocked Indonesia and south Asia yesterday.
Save the Children is focusing its latest emergency response efforts on Nias and Simeulue—two islands off the coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia--where hundreds of people were killed and many homes destroyed. Nias has a population of over 440,000 and Simeulue a population of 78,000.
“It seems totally unfair that children and their families in Indonesia once again have been so heavily impacted by a second major earthquake in three months,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, based in Westport, Connecticut.
“We will continue to work throughout Aceh province and northern Sumatra to help meet the immediate and long-term needs of children as a result of the two earthquakes,” he said. “The psychological impact that this second earthquake in Indonesia and south Asia will undoubtedly have upon children cannot be underestimated.”
Two planes loaded with medical kits and supplies are expected to leave Sumatra shortly, and a large cargo ship containing medical kits, large tents, baby food and a variety of household items already is on its way to the islands.
Save the Children, which has worked in northern Sumatra for 30 years, had staff members on the island of Simeulue when yesterday’s earthquake hit. Staff responded immediately, helping provide medical care at a public hospital in the town of Sinabang, the capital of Simeulue.
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Save the Children staff noted that about 40 percent of the houses and shops in downtown Sinabang were badly damaged.
Save the Children’s own office in Sinabang was virtually destroyed, but the earthquake struck late Monday night, and staff members were not in the building at the time. “Our staff members were sleeping in houses that withstood the shocks of the earthquake,” said MacCormack. “We were very fortunate,” he said.
Experts said Monday’s earthquake in Indonesia and south Asia was very similar in location and magnitude to the earthquake that rocked south Asia and parts of Africa on December 26 and triggered one of history’s most deadly tsunamis. However, Monday’s earthquake did not create a similar tsuanmi because a much smaller area of the ocean floor moved, seismologists said.
Many Save the Children workers in the Indonesian provincial capital of Banda Aceh—the city hardest hit by the December earthquake and tsunami--were shaken awake on Monday night and forced to leave their homes when the earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, hit shortly after 11p.m. Indonesian time (shortly after 11a.m. eastern time).
Electrical power in Banda Aceh was knocked out, but was restored within a few hours. Tirana Hassan, who heads Save the Children’s child protection programs in Banda Aceh, said no staff members appeared to have suffered injuries. “Everyone was very orderly in leaving their homes and moving to higher ground. There was no panic in the neighborhood in which we live,” Hassan said.
Another Save the Children worker, Dugal Paschen, was in a boat anchored off Simeulue when the earthquake hit. “The boat rocked back and forth for three minutes,” Paschen said. “We quickly pulled anchor and headed out into the ocean to avoid a deadly tsunami, which never came.” Paschen today joined in colleagues in assisting relief efforts in Simeulue where the agency has been providing baby food, household kits and other basic commodities to Simeulue survivors following the December 26 earthquake.
Save the Children has assisted more than 200,000 children in Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia since the December 26 earthquake. “We believe we will not require additional funds to respond to this disaster due to the previous generosity of the public,” said MacCormack. “We encourage those donors who would like to give to consider directing their support to other Save the Children programs in more than 40 developing countries around the world, including the United States."
