Red Cross Blogs

Reporting from Indonesia: inspiration and coconuts

By Sarah Oughton
October 9, 2009 at 2:08 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.

Up early again and out into the field. This time I’m with Alfiyah and her team of tracing volunteers. Alfiyah works for the Indonesia Red Cross helping to restoring family links – basically when a disaster happens, which is pretty frequently in Indonesia, it’s her job to help people make contact with their missing family members.

She is only 25 but speaks fluent English and Japanese and has already responded to the Boxing Day tsunami, and the earthquake in Yogykarta in 2006. I find her an amazing woman – really inspiring.

Alfiyah says: “I love this work because I’m taking care of people’s emotional needs. Other programmes provide material goods, but I help find their family.”

We travel with a team of local volunteers to a village, Cengkeh, which hasn’t yet been reached by the outside world. The team has a satellite phone for people in the village to use so they can check their family members who live elsewhere are ok.

However before we even get to the village we need some local knowledge.

Alfiyah enlisted the help of the Scooter Community – a group of young guys with scooters who volunteer with the Red Cross as guides. She tells me they are invaluable for finding remote locations and villages and we follow them for two hours, climbing higher and higher. Cengkeh can only be reached by single track, hair-pin bend roads and a very rickety wooden slat bridge –I close my eyes at that point!

When we get there, the volunteers conduct door-to-door enquiries and speak to the village chief to find out how many people have been killed and injured, how many homes damaged and most importantly what relief items the people in the village need most. When they complete their assessment, the team will report back to the Red Cross’ earthquake operational centre in Padang and relief teams will get supplies to the village the following day.

We speak to Suherman who had lived in the same house for 60 years, until the earthquake brought everything to the ground. Now Suherman and his wife and their five children are living in a tent outside his brother’s house, which has also been damaged by the quake.

He insists that we come to see his house. I do feel slightly nervous as we trek off into the Indonesian forest with about 20 children following us, but after about 10 minutes we reach what was once his house. It’s hard to describe really, some bits of wall are still standing and there is furniture there too – the remains of a bed, a wardrobe. It kind of looks like a dolls house with the top lifted off.

Suhreman says: “I was sitting outside the house relaxing when everything started to shake. My head was aching and I felt sick too. I grabbed my three-year old son and we all ran from the house as fast as we could. Everyone was screaming and shouting and very scared.

“We ran as far away as we could and the earthquake lasted for three or four minutes. When we looked back at the house the whole building had caved in. When that happened, I was confused and my body was shaking and I thought it was the end of the world.

“We really need shelter,” he continues. “There are now 10 of us at my brother’s house and that has been damaged too so we are afraid to go inside because of the aftershocks. Every shock feels like a small earthquake to me.

“My youngest son cries every night since the earthquake and it is too cold for him at night, sleeping in a tent. I am upset about the house, but there is nothing I can do but build it again and keep my spirits focused on that.”

Before we leave Suhreman takes us to his brother’s house and cuts open some coconuts he has taken from outside his house and insists that we take one each. I’m touched by this hospitality from a man who’s home has been destroyed. I’m also watched by the gaggle of kids who find it hilarious when I dribble all over my chin!

Over the following month Red Cross teams will continue to provide relief items, however in the longer term the organisation aims to help people recover from the earthquake by rebuilding their homes and livelihoods. It will cost a lot, which is why your donation is so important.

To donate visit the DEC website or call 0370 60 60 900

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Tags: earthquake, emergency response unit, Indonesia, indonesia earthquake

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Emergencies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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