Indonesia Earthquake Report from Action by Churches Together

As the death toll passes 6,000, life-saving efforts continue in Indonesia’s quake-stricken island of Java, as humanitarian and Christian organisations urgently take action in providing aid.

|PIC1|Along with other Christian relief agencies, Lutheran World Relief, a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT), is supporting the ACT response to the earthquake.

ACT members in Indonesia have been distributing emergency relief supplies since Saturday and have been assisting in the treatment of injured patients at hospitals and through mobile clinics.

More than 2,800 people benefited from tents, mattresses, kitchen utensils and hygiene items distributed by Yayasan Tanggul Bencana Indonesia (YTBI). Currently operating from two crisis centres, YTBI was expecting to assist an additional 500 households yesterday and to open another crisis centre if necessary.

Church World Service (CWS) has so far distributed 9,600 bottles of mineral water, 117 packages of biscuits, 1,125 hygiene kits, 270 blankets and 40 tents in Jetis and Imogiri, sub-districts of Bantul district.

YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) has been responding to emergency needs largely through hospitals in the area. YAKKUM's biggest hospital, Bethesda, in Yogyakarta, which has become the center of relief operations for the quake-hit region, has been overflowing with patients injured in the quake.

|AD|Bernd Baucks, a staff member visiting the region from Germany-based ACT member Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), reports that aid is coming into the area and is starting to make its way to the affected areas, although there are pockets that have not received any assistance yet.

“The hospital is full - far beyond its normal capacity,” reports DEA’s Baucks to Reuters, speaking by phone from Yogyakarta Wednesday morning.

In the city of Yogyakarta, Baucks says he noticed many buildings still standing, but that “many shops, hotels and other businesses are closed - either the water doesn’t function or the electricity is out of order because the building is somehow damaged. The damage in Yogyakarta is probably bigger than at first glance,” he says.

In visits outside Yogyakarta in the Bantul area and to the small village of Garjoyo, which was
completely destroyed, the situation is much worse, reports Baucks. “The destruction is quite bad,” he says.

“People are staying near their houses under plastic sheeting, which doesn't really give much protection from the rain,” which has been falling at night, says Baucks. People are still in a state of shock, he says. “Putting up plastic sheeting was about all they could do.”