Red Cross Blogs

Reporting from Indonesia: tears roll down her face

By Sarah Oughton
October 12, 2009 at 12:01 pm

Guest blogger Sharon Reader is a communications officer in Scotland. After the earthquake which hit Sumatra, Indonesia, she was sent with the British Red Cross logistics emergency response unit (ERU) to report back on the situation.

On my last day in Padang I went to see a Red Cross psycho-social support counselling session for women in the village of Sikapak, north of Pariaman. Women have been particularly hard hit by the earthquake as they were the ones at home with the kids when it happened.

When we arrived the community hall was packed out. I might not understand Indonesian, but it’s pretty clear what they’re talking about. They shake their arms and shout out and one woman has tears rolling down her face.

Halfway though a young woman comes and sits next to me and asks me my name. I say ‘nama saya Sharon’ – it’s the only Indonesian I know, but she’s delighted. I’m taking photos of the session around me and turn the camera on her and she beams – two seconds later I’m surrounded by people! I feel a bit guilty for drawing attention away from the session, but Elly just smiles and winks at me.

When the team finish, it’s clear the session has been a real benefit to the women – as well as a chance to talk, they are given techniques for coping with stress and the opportunity for additional counselling. When something like this happens you think about the material things – it’s easy to forget the massive psychological impact it also has on people.

I chat to Arie who is 26 years old and an English teacher at the local school. She tells me when the earth started shaking everyone screamed and ran outside, but her mother was in the kitchen at the back of the house and didn’t make it out in time. She got trapped in the rubble and had to be taken to hospital. She is still sick and Arie isn’t sure when she’ll be able to walk again.

The whole family are now living under a tarpaulin tent in the front garden. School term starts on Monday and I ask Arie how will she cope? She says it won’t be easy – maybe she can get washed at school. I’ll try and remember Arie when my alarm goes off for work next week.

Arie tells me a lot of the children are scared to go back to school, that they don’t want to leave their parents and they don’t trust the school building. Yesterday though the Red Cross psycho-social support team ran a puppet show to get kids talking about the disaster and Arie tells me that really helped.

Then my friend from the hall, Diah, asks me to come and see her house. It’s only half standing and I have to clamber over rubble to get to her front door. She shows me her bedroom, which is just a pile of bricks. Miraculously she is still smiling.

I ask her where she was when the earthquake happened and she says she was in the river with friends and the water suddenly started churning and turned muddy. She says she totally panicked and ran all the way home. Diah, 25, lost both her parents seven years ago and now lives with her grandmother and sister – who just had a baby seven days ago. I meet her grandmother who doesn’t really acknowledge me. The family tell me she hasn’t been the same since the earthquake – that she has lost her mind.

I ask how they are coping in the ruins of the house, with a seven-day-old baby and Diah tells me earlier that week the Red Cross came with rice, tarpaulin and cooking materials and she doesn’t know what they would have done without it. I tell her I’m writing a story about them for a British magazine and the whole family start clapping and thanking me. Really, I feel grateful to them and amazed at their resilience. Despite losing everything, they can still smile and have been so warm and friendly to me, I feel really sad – and guilty – to get in the car and leave them.

I’m flying back to the UK tomorrow but my logistics ERU colleagues will be here for another three weeks and then another team can replace them if needed.

It’s been an amazing week – hot, sticky, tiring, but ultimately very satisfying. When I heard that £1 million has been raised by the DEC appeal I was overjoyed. The people here are resilient and even in the face of an earthquake, still have hope, but they do need help to rebuild their homes and donations in the UK can help agencies like the Red Cross do that.

To donate go to www.dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 900

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Tags: disaster response, earthquake, Emergencies, indonesia earthquake, natural disaster

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