Currently, Christian Aid is supporting three organisations working in Indonesia, YEU, YTBI (both Indonesian church organisations) and Church World Service. All three organisations worked with Christian Aid since the tsunami of December 2004, as they are part of the Action by Churches Together international network of emergency response agencies.
Christian Aid will remain in close contact with these partner organisations which are best placed to help those in need. Klaus Peters, Christian Aid’s Emergency Manager for South East Asia, said on Tuesday that the Indonesian government was also providing compensation for families who had lost their homes, as well as emergency food parcels.
Medical care is being provided by YEU. As one of the largest health care providers in Indonesia, YEU is providing crucial medical relief to some of the 10,000 people who were injured by Saturday’s earthquake. A team of doctors, nurses and volunteers is working out of YEU’s main Bethesda hospital in Jogjakarta, near the epicentre of the earthquake. All of the staff are local and were some of the first on the scene at the weekend. Some of them lost their own homes in the disaster.In addition to medical care, YEU staff have carried out assessments of the local area and report that there is a need for more shelter – 200,000 people are homeless as a result of the earthquake. First aid kits, food and non-food items such as sanitary items and latrines are also needed.
Working through Javanese churches, YTBI has distributed food packages, purchased locally, to people who lost their homes. Church World Service is awaiting a shipment of tents and blankets which it will then distribute to those in need.
According to the latest reports, the death toll of the 5.9 Richter scale earthquake that hit Saturday is soaring past 5,000, with thousands more survivors left homeless and in urgent need of medical support and essential relief items.
