Page20

The Indonesian Earthquake

A Humanitarian Experience by Sasti Watson.

On Sunday July 7, after the wedding of my niece I began to make enquiries about how best to use the funds raised by the lunch on June 25 in Manfield Village Hall which came to £1400 .Another £1400 had been donated from friends in the UK. At my nephew’s advice I phoned a charity staffed by volunteers . A young engineer called Andi called at my brother’s house and offered to take us to Jogjakarta, a two hour drive, the following day.

Driving into Jogkarta from Semarang, showed the extent of the damage. In every village there were houses which had been demolished, some badly damaged and others looked normal. Hundreds of families were living in tents in gardens.

AndI advised us to go to a small town called Klaten, north of Jogjakarta not in the worst affected area, which was attracting the bulk of Indonesian and International aid but where damage was nevertheless widespread. Things were not encouraging. We had been joined by Wahyu, another engineers . We saw two schools that had been totally demolished. The army were building temporary bamboo structures, with the promise of proper repairs ‘later’. In the background, Merapi, the volcano which dominates the skyline was still smoking.

It was after driving about seven miles down an earth road’s seven miles from the main road that we came to a remote village called Katekan

There we found a project that was attainable with the funds and time I had. There were two schools, Primary I and Primary 2. Primary 1 was a heap of rubble but Primary two, while unsafe to enter was repairable. The roof was badly damaged, walls were cracked, ceilings were down and the water supply ruptured. I asked a local official and he said he would start the procedure and would contact the authorities; knowing my country and its bureaucracy I asked Andy and Wahu, for the work to be priced, pointing out I only had three weeks. Some teaching was still taking place in a tent behind the main building but it was so hot by 10.00 am. that the children were sent home

Two days later I had an estimate which my brother., a retired civil engineer, checked out and on Thursday 13 went to Klaten to meet Yudi, a building contractor. The job was discussed ,a price agreed and we went to buy the materials. I left Andi and Yudi to supervise the work. From Friday 14 Wednesday I was visiting relatives so it was a week later when I revisited the school. There were eleven men working on the site, bamboo scaffolding encased the building and a new roof had already been put on. Joiners and plasterers were working inside.

It was then that I met the Head teacher Mrs Atick who nervously pointed out there was another block which we had not seen - it was hidden by the large tent in which the children had been having lessons - and could I help further estimate. At about the same time I had an email from a friend in England, Mrs Linda Sanders.

She had worked in Indonesia with VSO at the same time as my husband and was retiring as a teacher from a school in Eastbourne, Sussex. She had said she did not want presents but would prefer any donations to go to a charity and had offered what was raised ; the sum came to 500.00 which was enough to repair the other buildings and leave enough left over to buy some desks and books. Overall, the total sum raised was £3465 and this has restored a school for 80 children. The buildings have been re-roofed, six classrooms , and office-staff room and water tower have been restored and there was enough left over to buy 17 desks, 1000 exercise books and various items of stationary.

On Tuesday 24 July I carried out an official ‘handing over’ ceremony. In her response Mrs Atick asked me to thank you all for the generosity and compassion shown by English people. She could not believe her luck when out of the blue came this ‘anonymous donor’ from England.