Overview

When the earthquake struck Yogyakarta May 27, 2006, CARE Indonesia’s emergency team responded immediately, delivering clean water to 1,200 families within days. Many of the staff implementing CARE’s emergency work in Yogyakarta are experienced veterans of the tsunami disaster in Aceh in 2004, and participated in the first inter-agency UN assessment team to the earthquake zone in Yogyakarta the day after the earthquake struck.

CARE’s response

With more than 40 years’ experience in humanitarian and development work in Indonesia, CARE is using a locally driven response to help the people of Java recover from the May 27 earthquake. CARE is coordinating closely with the local governments, other aid organizations and UN agencies to ensure that all areas are reached equally – which is why CARE has chosen to focus first on the remote and badly damaged sub-districts of Prambanan Sleman, Prambanan Klaten, Gantiwarno, and Wedi first.

CARE’s Java Earthquake Response Programme provides emergency shelter and supplies; water purification solution for safe, clean water; support for local health care and disease surveillance; and an innovative market-based approach to provide food and household items to survivors through local vendors. By partnering with other agencies, we are maximizing our ability to reach as many survivors as quickly and effectively as possible.

Local partners, local knowledge

The Indonesian aid community in Yogyakarta is very well-established, with invaluable knowledge of the local communities and needs. Building on previous collaboration, CARE chose to partner with Dian Desa, an internationally respected Indonesian non-governmental organization that has been implementing a range of programmes in emergency response and development throughout Indonesia for more than 30 years. By combining our resources and expertise, CARE and Dian Desa are able to provide aid more quickly and effectively across a wider region that we would have on our own.

Emergency shelter and supplies

The people of Java have a long history of working together in times of crisis, and survivors of the earthquake immediately began salvaging materials from their damaged homes in order to start building temporary shelters for themselves and their families. To help people through the initial emergency phase of the disaster, CARE is providing tarps, blankets and emergency supplies to 7,000 families in the affected areas.

Safe water, healthy families

In Yogyakarta, CARE is bringing expertise from its successful emergency response in Aceh, where the distribution of water purification solution after the tsunami provided clean water for more than 350,000 people and helped save lives. Clean water is absolutely essential in the early days of the disaster response to prevent a “second wave” of deaths from water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, which can be deadly for small children.

CARE is providing water purification solution to 40,000 families in four sub-districts, along with jerry cans to keep the treated water free of further contamination. Families receive training on hygiene and how to use the simple solution, which you add to water to purify it. One 100ml bottle of the solution, called Air Rahmat (Safe, Health, Clean Water), is enough to purify water for a family of five for one month, and costs just 3,000 Rp (about 30 cents US). CARE staff then follow up to test water quality and ensure people are using Air Rahmat effectively.

Supporting local health care

CARE practices an integrated response in our programming; so while we deliver safe water to families, we also follow up to ensure that water remains clean and people are healthy. CARE’s mobile clinic and experienced doctors and health workers visit villages in Prambanan Klaten to track tetanus cases and conduct disease and diarrhea surveillance and treatment, an important step to prevent the spread of disease. CARE also visits families individually in their homes, to ensure we reach people who are unable to come to the mobile clinic.

CARE’s health team collaborates with and supports government and private sector health centres to provide health services and referral of ill patients in need of further treatment. Combined with CARE’s Air Rahmat distribution, CARE’s health programme ensures survivors have all the tools and support they need to remain healthy.

Using local markets to provide emergency food and supplies

CARE is committed to innovative, local solutions, and has found that market-based approaches are the best way to kick-start the recovery process. Building on experience from our Tsunami Response Programme in Aceh, CARE’s Market-based Relief Programme is working through local vendors to supply food and basic household needs to 20,000 survivors, empowering them to be part of their own recovery while at the same time supporting the local market and helping to return a sense of normalcy to the stricken areas.

Each person receives a food voucher, which they can take to a pre-selected local vendor and collect their monthly ration of rice, vegetable oil, canned fish, mung beans and salt. Each family receives a second voucher to choose from a pre-approved list of additional household items that includes soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and sanitary napkins, bras and panties for women. Participants can also redeem their voucher for other perishable food items necessary to maintain a healthy diet, such as vegetables, fruit and eggs, which are not distributed through a traditional food distribution programme. The total value of the monthly voucher is 50,000Rp (approx. $5US), and is enough to cover the basic household needs of a family for a month.

This emergency response program has come to an end yet CARE is still contuining the work serving the people in need through its longer-term programs.