In the city of Palu, I saw families living in tents. The streets were full of traumatised survivors who were too frightened to return to their homes amid the aftershocks, or who had no homes to return to, after tens of thousands were destroyed.
The survivors are the ‘lucky’ ones. Entire communities here have been decimated and families torn apart. With 2010 people already confirmed dead, more than 5000 are feared missing.
Women, children and families often suffer disproportionally during a humanitarian emergency like this. They can be particularly vulnerable in the aftermath. It is women who usually take on childcare responsibilities. They show great resilience in their determination to survive as best they can, even when they have lost loved ones and have their kids living under a tarpaulin.
Fazrianti lived in one of the hardest hit areas. I found her underneath a tree where she is now living with her young child because their home was so badly damaged. She explained that she just had time to grab her daughter and run, so now they have nothing left except each other and the clothes on their backs.
Fazrianti and her young family are among the 200,000 survivors who are in urgent need of assistance. Thousands of families are in desperate need of food and drinking water, and tarpaulins to make emergency shelters as well as medicine and medical help.
Red Cross doctors, working out of mobile health clinics, say they’re mostly treating women and children. Many are suffering from open wounds, broken bones and bruises, as well as stress-related high blood pressure and illnesses such as diarrhoea, stomach problems and flu, brought on by lack of clean water.
I met a distraught mother who had brought her four-year-old daughter to the Red Cross health clinic for emergency medical help as she was feeling extremely sick and dizzy. The mother was still traumatised by the tsunami and very worried about her little girl. Her husband was working away from home, so she had been left alone to care for their daughter in unimaginable circumstances. The stress was taking its toll on her.
In Sigi, central Sulawesi, I spoke to the father of two 15-year-old girls who had both been attending a bible camp when the tsunami hit. He had spent two days searching through the rubble with his bare hands, but he knew that with each passing day, the chance of finding them alive was diminishing. When I found him, he was standing in the mud of the tsunami with two pictures of his children: he just stood there beside the rescue workers and cried.
The survivors don’t just need short-term aid. A tsunami hits at 400mph, but it also kills slowly, over time. The survivors, particularly the children, will need long term protection and support to help them to process the emotional impact of the events that they’ve experienced.
DEC member charities and their local partners are working closely with the Indonesian authorities to support survivors. As the full scale of the disaster unfolds, they’re ready to do even more, to help these devastated communities rebuild their lives.
The Indonesian Red Cross has been on the ground since immediately after the tsunami hit. More than 600 volunteers are providing medical care, distributing relief and evacuating survivors from the disaster zone. It has already treated 2,100 patients across its three medical clinics, and will continue to support those affected for as long as is needed.
The Red Cross is also working to bring in psychosocial support to help people cope with the crisis, and its Restoring Family Links team has started to reunite families who have been separated during the chaos. Other agencies are starting to set up safe spaces for women, children and the elderly, which will help to restore a sense of security and normality, and help people to cope and recover.
Your donations will contribute to the combined relief effort, led by Indonesian agencies and local branches of global organisations, and will help devastated people rebuild their lives.
Help women, children and families by donating to the DEC Indonesia Tsunami Appeal www.dec.org.uk/
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Guest Post By Iris Van Deinse, Communications delegate, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: "Indonesia Tsunami: Women, children and families are suffering the most.”
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MumsnetGuestPosts · 19/10/2018 12:44
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