It
was a day of relief and intrigue when the blue, drum-shaped
containers arrived in the village of Semoyo, in the hills south
of Yogyakarta. People opened the containers like chocolate boxes,
pulling out shovels, crow bars, pliers, hammers, saws, chisels,
wire and nails.
Next came red wheel barrows, in pieces. Villagers and volunteers
from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) sat down on the ground,
under a canopy of trees, and began putting them together, their
faces serious as the children giggled.
For two months, survivors in the Yogyakarta area had been working
to clear away the remains of their houses, which were destroyed
by the 27 May earthquake. Their goal was to stack the unbroken
bricks and tiles to be used again before the arrival of the
monsoon season this month.
For many people, the repair tools, provided by the International
Federation and funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian
Aid Department, ECHO, would mean the difference between safe
shelter and misery.
Without a roof over their heads, the rains could lead to an
inceased risk of respiratory diseases, dengue fever and malaria.
The PMI, supported by the International Federation, has been
working to distribute tool kits to 100,000 families affected
by the earthquake, which killed more than 5,800 people and left
a million homeless.
As the truckload of blue containers is unloaded, a PMI coordinator
goes through the list of families in the village. There is one
tool kit for every five families, who patiently wait their turn.
One person signs the letter of receipt and takes charge of the
tools – under the traditional Javanese custom of “Gotong
Royong”, they will be used to help the most vulnerable
people in the village first.
“We always talk about this sort of self-help as an ideal
in other parts of the world, but here it is a reality,”
says Cristina Lopez Fuentes, Relief Coordinator for the International
Federation in Yogyakarta.
“It was the Indonesian Red Cross’ idea… without
them, we couldn’t deliver 5,000 kits a week,” she
adds.
Nothing is wasted here. After the drums are emptied, they will
be used to collect and store water.
The kits cost just under 125 Swiss francs ($100 USD/ €
78) each, but they provide the potential to repair five or more
houses.
“In two weeks residents can build one house,” says
Lopez Fuentes. “They decide which family goes first.”
The tool distribution is just one of the PMI projects in the
Yogyakarta region supported by a 3 million Swiss franc ($2.4
million USD/ €1.9 million) contribution from ECHO.
“The people of Indonesia are so wonderful… It’s
impossible to hear a negative word from them,” says Lopez
Fuentes. “Before the toolkit distribution, I asked one
villager what she needed most and the answer was ‘Anything
you can give us’.”
Three women pick up their toolkit. One of them produces a long
sarong and wraps it around the drum. The other two hoist it
on her back.
They start up the hill to the remains of their house, smiling,
waving and keen to start rebuilding their home and their lives.
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It
was a day relief and intrigue when the blue, drum-shaped
containers arrived in the village of Semoyo, in the hills
south of Yogyakarta. People opened the containers like
chocolate boxes, pulling out shovels, crow bars, pliers,
hammers, saws, chisels, wire and nails.(p14708)
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Next
came red wheel barrows, in pieces. Villagers and volunteers
from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) sat down on the ground,
under a canopy of trees, and began putting them together,
their faces serious as the children giggled. (p14705)
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Three
women pick up their toolkit. One of them produces a long
sarong and wraps it around the drum. The other two hoist
it on her back. (p14699)
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The
PMI, supported by the International Federation, has been
working to distribute tool kits to 100,000 families affected
by the earthquake, which killed more than 5,800 people
and left a million homeless. (p14698)
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