News article I wrote while Information Officer for Action by Churches Together (ACT) International
ACT members continue to provide critical assistance to quake survivors
Geneva, May 31, 2006—As full-scale relief operations get underway in response to Saturday’s strong earthquake that hit south of Yogyakarta on Indonesia’s island of Java, members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International are continuing their life-saving efforts for the region’s residents whose homes were destroyed or who were injured.
Bernd Baucks, a staff member visiting the region from Germany-based ACT member Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), reports that aid is coming into the area and is starting to make its way to the affected areas, although there are pockets that have not received any assistance yet. ACT members in Indonesia have been distributing emergency relief supplies since Saturday and have been assisting in the treatment of injured patients at hospitals and through mobile clinics.
Yayasan Tanggul Bencana Indonesia (YTBI) is operating from two crisis centers in Prambanan sub-district in Klaten. It has distributed food and non-food items, including tents, mattresses, kitchen utensils and women’s hygiene items, to a total of 847 households (more than 2,800 people). YTBI was expecting to assist an additional 500 households today and to open another crisis center if necessary.
Some distributions of food are carried out through public kitchens that YTBI has established. YTBI has recruited 40 volunteers from the Javanese Christian Churches (GKJ) and ten volunteers from the Islamic University of Indonesia who are working in two shifts. Some survivors are also assisting in the distributions.
YTBI reports that those who survived the earthquake need more supplies to fulfill their basic needs and that the survivors’ locations are spread widely across the area, which makes reaching many of them difficult.
Church World Service (CWS) has distributed 9,600 bottles of mineral water, 117 packages of biscuits, 1,125 hygiene kits, 270 blankets and 40 tents in Jetis and Imogiri sub-districts of Bantul district.
One of the three ACT members in Indonesia, YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU), operates under the umbrella of the YAKKUM foundation (Yayasan Kristen untuk Kesehatan Umum - Christian Foundation for Public Health), which provides many of its services in the area of the earthquake. YEU has been responding to emergency needs largely through hospitals in the area that are also under the YAKKUM umbrella. YAKKUM’s biggest hospital, Bethesda, in Yogyakarta, which has become the center of relief operations for the quake-hit region, has been overflowing with patients injured in the quake.
“The hospital is full – far beyond its normal capacity,” reports DEA’s Baucks, who was speaking by phone from Yogyakarta this morning. “Nurses and doctors there are overworked. They have been working since Saturday.”
Baucks says lack of sterilization is a critical issue right now at the hospital, making surgeries difficult. In general, however, Baucks notes that the medical services the hospital has been providing since Saturday are very effective.
In the city of Yogyakarta, Baucks says he noticed many buildings still standing, but that “many shops, hotels and other businesses are closed – either the water doesn’t function or the electricity is out of order because the building is somehow damaged. The damage in Yogyakarta is probably bigger than at first glance,” he says.
In visits outside Yogyakarta in the Bantul area and to the small village of Garjoyo,
which was completely destroyed, the situation is much worse, reports Baucks. “The destruction is quite bad,” he says.
“People are staying near their houses under plastic sheeting, which doesn’t really give much protection from the rain,” which has been falling at night, says Baucks. People are still in a state of shock, he says. “Putting up plastic sheeting was about all they could do.”
On May 29, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), one of ACT’s founding members, Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, sent a message of solidarity and support in a letter to the Communion of Churches in Indonesia and WCC member churches in Indonesia. “As you are aware, the WCC member churches also share your grief in this tragedy, and all of us are committed and ready to contribute in any possible manner to overcome the catastrophic impact of this natural disaster and in alleviating the sufferings of the affected victims,” wrote Kobia.
Kobia also sent a letter on behalf of the WCC to Indonesia’s president to convey condolences to the people of Indonesia.
Today the Geneva-based ACT Coordinating Office issued an updated preliminary appeal on behalf of the ACT members in Indonesia for US$2.9 million. This replaces the original version sent yesterday.
