Indonesia May 3, 2010 7:32AM
Padang: seven months after the earthquake
Harum Sekartaji
Communications Coordinator, Indonesia
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Third-graders at Coroco elementary school, Pesisir Selatan district, West Sumatra. Photo: Harum Sekartaji/Mercy Corps
“Now I know what to do when an earthquake strikes. I will hide under a table,” said Nisa, a third grader at Coroco elementary school, Pesisir Selatan district, West Sumatra after joining a Mercy Corps earthquake and tsunami awareness session.
She wasn’t the only one. Almost a hundred of her friends felt the same way, since they’ve never received any Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) information before. Not to mention the teachers who also gathered in the classroom, listening to the materials given and watching movies on how to best react to earthquakes and tsunamis.
My trip to Pesisir Selatan — about two and a half hours drive south of Padang, the capital and largest city of West Sumatra — was one part of my week in the region to gather stories and photos for our upcoming newsletter on West Sumatra Emergency Response and Recovery (WSERR) Programme. I’ve only been with Mercy Corps Indonesia for less than a month, so this was a huge opportunity for me to understand things going on here seven months after our programme started.
Besides grabbing stories from the school, I also met some of the cadre for our hygiene promotion programmes, who were all women. They told me how important the trainings and materials from Mercy Corps were for socializing hygiene issues in a community where healthy behaviour is rare, due to lack of access to clean water and latrines. Maria, one of the nine hygiene trainers in the village of Sago, even showed me how she trained mothers and children while holding up posters and pointing to the picture cards.
Maria, one of the nine Mercy Corps-trained hygiene promoters in the village of Sago, holds up one of the picture cards she uses to teach mothers and children about proper sanitation. Photo: Harum Sekartaji/Mercy Corps
“These pictures really helped me spread health issues. I’m sure people will change their behaviour even if it takes a long time. I’ll be watching them”, she said.
The day before, I joined a discussion between Mercy Corps and the community of Ganting in Kota Padang, on the plan of constructing latrines in the village. This is one of the permanent latrines about to be built by the communities in Kota Padang, Padang Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan after we built 80 temporary facilities during the emergency time.
“We commit to build the facilities together and will use and maintain them with a big sense of belonging,” said Syafri Syam, the community leader of Ganting.
A sincere thank you came from Safrizal, the neighborhood leader of Kuranji village, whose people received 194 recovery kits during emergency and had help them rebuilt their homes. “Those tools from Mercy Corps will be reused for our latrine construction,” he said, while hoping that the people of his village will get easier access to clean water so that they will change the behaviour of using rivers for daily activities.
I also visited Padang Pariaman — about an hour and a half drive north of Padang. I met beneficiaries of our cash grant and voucher programmes. Rini, a voucher vendor, felt so glad being a part of the programme since she can help her neighbors in providing materials for reconstructing their ruined homes after the earthquake. Marjali, a beneficiary of the programme has redeemed the IDR 700,000 (about £47) voucher into seven sacks of cement and six cans of paint to build a new floor and paint his shop.
“I chose to rebuild my shop before doing so with my house, because I could earn enough money from selling goods to keep on surviving. I can't depend on my green beans,” he said while pointing at his small field where he grows green beans.
A week of interviewing beneficiaries of our emergency kit distribution programmes, making trips to latrine construction sites, meeting hygiene promoters, joining the earthquake awarenss session, and talking about the programme with the passionate staff of the Mercy Corps Padang office has given me a new vision of what the organisation is all about. Now I realize how it has reached so many people, given them benefits and the spirit to keep moving on even after the disaster. Above all, I get to be closer than ever with the community. It was such an awesome week for me.
So — after compiling all the data, photos and stories for our newsletter, here I am — making the most of my last hour in Padang to write my first blog. Really glad to be a part of Mercy Corps!
