Presbyterian Mission Co-Workers Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta living in Yogyakarta are okay. We have called partners in Indonesia to express our concern and to be assured of their safety. The ACT office in Geneva is coordinating information with the ACT Coordinating Office in Medan (for the tsunami appeal). The three ACT members in Indonesia are:
- YTBI — Yayasan Tanggul Benkana Indonesia, the disaster program of the Council of Churches of Indonesia
- YEU — the Emergency Unit of YAKKUM — Yayasan Kristen untuk Kesehatan Umum, the Christian Foundation for Public Health
- CWS (Church World Service)
The three ACT members immediately began responding in the following ways:
YEU
YEU has been assisting mainly with medical care. On Saturday, YEU began providing medical services and assessments through mobile clinics in the affected areas. These mobile clinics are staffed by six medical teams, each made up of doctors, nurses and support staff to handle information and assist in organizing communities. YEU has also established health posts to provide medical services.
The mobile-clinic teams reported that in each village they have visited, 80 to 98 percent of the houses are damaged, hundreds of people are injured, and up to 100 people were killed. The teams' overall observations were that there is inadequate shelter to protect survivors from the rain at night, a lack of first aid kits and medicines, no adequate latrines or other sanitation facilities, and a need for food and essential non-food items.
In each village, the teams treated between 30 and 150 patients. The teams also distributed hygiene kits from CWS. Baby kits from YTBI have been distributed to patients at Bethesda Hospital in Yogyakarta.
According to YEU, many of the patients who do not require extensive medical treatment have returned home, but some are reluctant to do so because they have lost their homes.
YTBI
On Saturday, YTBI sent two staff members to Yogyakarta to carry out a rapid assessment and arrange YTBI's response. Working with the Indonesia Christian Church (GKI) Semarang, YTBI distributed 250 food packages to survivors in Patalan village in Jetis sub-district, Bantul. In hard-hit Jetis, the death toll was over 500, and 90 percent of the houses had collapsed, according to YTBI.
YTBI is coordinating its efforts with the local Javanese Christian Churches (GKJ) of Patalan, Plempung, Prambanan and Gondokusuman. So far, YTBI has recruited more than 40 volunteers from these churches for food and non-food distributions.
Based on YTBI's initial assessments, the needs of the survivors in the three sub-districts of Jetis are tents, lanterns, kitchen utensils, food, kerosene, women's sanitary items, school kits, blankets and raincoats. YTBI has begun purchasing and distributing these items.
CWS
Based on its assessments of needs, CWS has distributed mineral water, instant noodles and biscuits to 500 households in four sub-districts in Bantul — Kretek, Parangtritis, Tambang Dipuro and Pundong. The CWS emergency team is currently assessing six other sub-districts in Bantul district — Sabdodadi, Jetis, Plered, Imogiri, Sewon and Kasihan.
A shipment of 40 family-sized tents, 1,125 hygiene kits and 270 blankets arrived today in Solo from CWS's warehouse in Medan. This is the first shipment of the 13 tons of supplies CWS plans to send for the affected people in Yogyakarta.
CWS is coordinating with its partners to acquire more information from other affected areas such as Klaten and Boyolali. |
