CARE brings desperately needed supplies, comfort to earthquake survivors
Klaten, Central Java (June 3, 2006) - Crawling on her knees, bricks and housing tiles crashing to the ground around her, Ibu Daroyah struggled to get home as the earth lurched and rolled beneath her. Walking was impossible, the earthquake was so strong.
“All I could think of was my children,” she said. “But I couldn’t even run, the ground was moving so much. I kept falling down.”
Daroyah followed the sounds of her children’s panicked cries to their home, where they had been playing outside. “I counted – one, two three – all safe. Thanks be to God, they were all safe,” she said, cradling her infant son in her arms.
But then she looked up at where her house should have been – all that was left was one cracked and crumbling wall, and a pile of broken brick and timber. She looked down the street, and house after house was the same. In less than a minute, her entire village had been destroyed.
The people of Java, the island where the earthquake hit, have a long history of coming together in crises and helping each other. If there is ever someone in need, there is always a neighbour there to help with food and comfort and a place to stay. But now, no one has anything to share; everyone has lost everything. In many villages where CARE is distributing relief supplies, nine out of 10 houses were destroyed. There is no food, no comfort, no extra bed – people sleep outside, and rely on the charity of others to eat.
And as the shock wore off, the rain began. For more than two days, heavy tropical rains battered the survivors, who were sleeping outside with no shelter, no hope, no homes. At night, Daroyah said she could hear the sound of children crying in the darkness, as the rain pounded down on the unprotected families.
So when the first CARE truck rolled into Daroyah’s village just days after the disaster, she said she almost couldn’t believe it. “This will help so much,” she said, placing her new blankets and huge blue tarp on the ground beside her destroyed home. “We couldn’t save anything from our house, and it gets cold at night. My baby would cry and shiver, but I couldn’t keep him warm. We can use the tarp to build a shelter. My husband will build it with bamboo, and it will keep us dry when it rains. And we can start to rebuild our home.”
CARE, with more than 40 years’ experience in Indonesia, immediately sent relief supplies of tarps, blankets, tents and safe water to the survivors, shipping goods from areas like Aceh, which was devastated by the tsunami last year. CARE is distributing emergency supplies and water purification solution to provide safe, clean water to more than 40,000 families in Klaten, one of the hardest-hit areas.
Clean water is one of the most critical issues after a disaster like this, to protect children like Daroyah’s baby from water-borne diseases like diarrhea. Diarrhea and illnesses like hepatitis can travel frighteningly fast after a disaster, when people are living without proper sanitation facilities. If not treated immediately, diarrhea can kill an infant within days.
“You can see where we are living now,” said Daroyah, pointing at the cramped tent next to a pile of rubble and open puddles of dirty water. “I don’t want my children to get sick. I will do anything to protect my children.”
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