Australia
Emergency Response in Sumatra
Save the Children responded with efficiency to the September earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia. Three earthquakes, the largest registering 8.4 richters, killed 25 people, injured over 160 and destroyed the homes of over 7,500 families. Public infrastructure such as roads, schools and buildings were also severely damaged.
Deployed immediately after the disaster to one of the worst hit towns – Mukomuko – was Save the Children Australia’s Rohan Kent. Rohan was in the field as part of a combined Save the Children Alliance Emergency Unit, to gain further knowledge and experience in emergency response work, as well as to bolster Save the Children Australia’s capacity in disaster relief and management. It is this level of united Alliance response by the Save the Children that saw a successful operation in the Solomon Islands tsunami earlier this year and is now setting the framework for similar successes in Indonesia and the wider region.
Following a natural disaster it is often the children who suffer the effects the soonest and the most severely, with the onset of an increasing malaria rate and other water borne diseases, as well as the emotional impact. In keeping with Save the Children’s child-focused values, Rohan’s primary task was to conduct child protection and education assessments as soon as the quakes subsided. Within the first few weeks of the operation 2,500 families received mosquito nets and latrines were constructed at the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Thousands of tarpaulins, sleeping mats, shelter kits and hygiene kits have also been distributed amongst over 20,000 children and their families in Bengkulu Province.
The next phase of the relief effort will focus on the long term provision of transitional educational facilities and also psychosocial teacher training programs aimed at ensuring teachers are able to respond to and support the needs of the children, who are working through their emotions and strengthening their own resilience following the disaster.
The Save the Children Alliance Emergency Unit is also prepared and ready to respond as the threat of volcanic eruption continues to loom over the people of Eastern Java, where Mount Kelud is poised to erupt.
Support our emergency relief work
To support Save the Children Australia and its child-centred emergency relief work, please give generously to our emergency appeals as they appear on our website or to offer your corporate support, please contact our Corporate Partnerships Manager Adele McIntosh +61 3 9938 2043 or Janet Cameron +61 2 9211 8800.