The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted October 12, 2009, 12:34 pm by Malka Older

Doing the (sometimes) heavy lifting

The trucks arrived at night, pulling up at our warehouse one by one. They had driven for four full days from Jakarta, pausing only to sleep from 1 A.M. to 5 A.M. in the truck on the side of the road.

Our warehouse, on the road from Padang to Bukit Tinggi, is a large restaurant that was slightly damaged in the quake and now stands completely empty, its traditional curving roof and empty plate glass window the only reminders of its former use. The drivers set to work unlocking the doors of the truck, and then we started unloading its contents:

• Plastic sacks with three jerry cans a piece inside (at least jerry cans are light!)
• Rolls of blankets and sarongs
• Boxes full of sanitary napkins (also light!)
• Bundles of crowbars (very, very heavy)

With the drivers, we formed an ever-moving distribution line, receiving goods from the back of the truck and walking them into the restaurant/warehouse, to where the logistics and warehouse staff were stacking them neatly in the back. As I carried (the drivers kept warning me how heavy things were, as if I wasn’t already aware) I thought about the things I was carrying.

The jerry cans — for collecting and holding water, the most important thing there was. The blankets — I had already noticed, despite the heat of midday, rainy nights were chilly, especially if the rain was falling directly on you, if you had nowhere to get inside. Or if you were terrified of being inside.

The hoes, hammers, and crowbars — much better than bare hands for moving the fallen pieces of a house, and starting to put them back together.

The physical exertion felt good. After so much time spent in front of my computer or riding in a car to field sites up to four hours away, lifting and hauling reactivated me. It probably wasn’t the most useful thing I could have done in that hour, comparative advantages considered (the drivers were all very good at carrying things). But it did remind me why we are working so hard, in all our different ways of working.

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Blog Post Posted October 12, 2009, 5:37 am by Glory Dwi Anjan...

The team behind the emergency response team

This morning when I arrived at the office, I got a call from one of my team members, Hasdi — a Community Facilitator for our Community Development Program here in Banda Aceh. He’s one of the members of Indonesia Response Team (IRT) in Padang, as a volunteer from our office. Immediately I was a bit worried, but he reassured me that everything was fine, just a little bit sleepless from the non-stop trips of assessment and distribution. He just missed us and wanted to hear the updates about our office.

“How’s work? Is everything fine?” he asked me with full concern. Then I said, “What work? We don’t have anything to do around here, so don’t worry!” Then we laughed heartily. I told him not to worry; I still have the other folks doing a great job and taking care of the work of those who have been deployed to Padang and surrounding areas for the emergency response. But it is, in fact, a busy time for us here: I am managing a team of 22 people for our two-year Community Development Program here in Banda Aceh. We're at the peak of workload to be completed: it's the month when our quarterly report to donors needs to be submitted.

When the devastating earthquake hit Padang on September 30, 2009, I was on an airplane on the way back to Banda Aceh from a weeklong break for the Eid Ul Fitr holiday. Therefore, I know nothing about the deadly disaster — not until my sister called me from home to make sure I was fine. She was afraid that the earthquake has shaken Aceh as well.

The following day, instead of focusing on catching up on work after the holiday, I got a quick morning briefing from my supervisor about the steps we needed to take in response to the disaster. I was needed to make a quick decision, because four of my staff members are currently on the IRT and two of them are team leaders. So, I met both of the leaders and asked for their willingness to be deployed soon — of course, they did not hesitate at all.

Starting that day —the first day after the earthquake — we prepared our team for some of their colleagues being deployed. We talked about what we needed to do in order to keep delivering our program in 40 villages across four sub-districts, as scheduled. We started preparing handover notes and appointing persons-in-charge.

Then came another day of decision: Tuesday, October 6, when Mercy Corps' Aceh Director told me that Padang needed as many team backup as possible. He planned to send all the IRT members in our office, plus some other folks who wanted to volunteer for the emergency response. That was the biggest pang for me: I needed to send five of our eight team members from our office to Padang the next day. It felt a little bit weird for me when that critical situation did happen, but we were ready. And it feels great that we could help in the emergency response by dedicating our team members there.

My conversation with Hasdi ended like this: “Okay, boss, I need to go now. We have a meeting."

Take care folks, we are supporting you! Keep up the spirit out there!

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Blog Post Posted October 11, 2009, 5:36 am by Greg Casagrande

Delivering aid to Samoa's survivors

It has been an unforgettable week. As a starter, let me share this photo of the formally picturesque village of Lalomanu where South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) once had 21 thriving micro-entrepreneurs. After the tsunami, Lalomanu is gone.

On Friday, we delivered aid packages to 102 stricken women in 15 different villages — including Lalomanu — across the southeast coast of Upolu in Samoa. They were all extremely delighted when we showed up at their various places of encampment.

The village of Lalomanu, Samoa is gone — where 21 clients of SPBD lived before the tsunami destroyed their homes and businesses. Photo: Greg Casagrande

We delivered these supplies to each lady:

• A 20-pound sack of rice
• 24 cans of fish
• A large bushknife
• A bucket in which they can store water for washing, cooking and bathing
• A wash basin
• Plates, cups and spoons
• 24 liters of water
• A box of mosquito coils
• Ten boxes of matches
• Four toothbrushes, three tubes of toothpaste and soap
• A grant for ST $150 (about US $60)

In total, this aid package was worth ST $400 per person (about US $160). That is more than the average monthly income for an underprivileged family in Samoa — and so these women were quite pleased when we arrived.

The village of Saleapaga, where SBPD worked with 14 successful micro-entrepreneurs, appears to be relocating and the government of Samoa appears to be supportive. While many of our ladies are living in quickly-assembled homes of loose pieces of timber, tarps and mats, the government is at work trying to extend power lines to the area. Hopefully — eventually — water and sanitation will also be brought to this area. For now, these families are very much out in the wilderness and so we are pleased to be able to lend a hand.

Greg Casagrande of SPBD (right) talks with Aso (middle), who lost three children to the tsunami. Photo: courtesy of Greg Casagrande

Earlier this week, there was another massive earthquake in the region — a 7.9-magnitude quake in Vanuatu. This led to a tsunami warning, which required the entire nation of Samoa to evacuate to higher ground. It was a fairly extraordinary experience watching (and participating in) the evacuation of the city of Apia. Fortunately, another tsunami did not show up but it did provide an opportunity to ensure that the tsunami alert system and the responses are appropriate.

On the unfortunate side, a few brave souls decided that this warning was the last straw and that they, too, have now decided to permanently move uphill into the bush.

On Saturday, SPBD carried out another large scale aid distribution. We visted another 13 villages that were severely impacted. Next week, we plan to start working with some of the more eager women to see if they are ready to start re-launching their micro businesses or re-building their homes. We are putting in place emergency financing packages for each of our ladies to help them do this.

Thank you to those have already donated so generously to support our efforts. That’s it for now. Tofa soifua.

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Blog Post Posted October 10, 2009, 10:17 am by Malka Older

Lake Maninjau

The earthquake-damaged rumah adat, the traditional meeting house for the community in the village of Bukit Tinggi. In front of the building are tents for families whose houses are too damaged to occupy. Photo: Malka Older/Mercy Corps

About six months ago, after spending a week working with our Disaster Risk Reduction Program in West Sumatra, I joined some friends in a trip to Bukit Tinggi, a town in the mountains above Padang that's popular with tourists. From there we drove to Lake Maninjau, a spectacularly beautiful crater lake set in a ring of sharp cliffs. From atop one of the bluffs we shot photos of the blue water and the mountains reflected in it, and then we drove down a series of hairpin curves to the town of Maninjau, filled with the quaint, traditional Padang houses.

Today I returned to Maninjau by another route, and with a very different purpose: assessing the needs of the people affected by the earthquake there. Even before we got to the shore of the lake, I could see the difference. The majestic cliffs around the lake, mostly green with vegetation, were now streaked with brown and dun, showing places where landslides had torn away from their sides.

We stopped at a small camp that had been set up for the people whose houses were too badly damaged to live in. Under a makeshift shelter children sat and a woman slept. Another tent — with a few desultory chairs under it and an old blackboard — had been set up as the school where, they told us, 118 students were supposed to learn. The original elementary school, across the street, had been completely destroyed. By the shore of the lake was the rumah adat —the traditional meeting house for the community — ornately carved in red and brown wood with the traditional sweeping roofs. One of its sides had been destroyed.

“There are twenty-three families here now,” the woman in the small registration office told us. “But there are more who were here and have gone home to their damaged houses to try to clean up. If it rains, they will come back here.”

The problem with rain was not getting wet. The problem with rain was the danger of further landslides.

Houses buried by the earthquake-driven landslide in Bukit Tinggi, with Lake Maningjau in the background. Photo: Malka Older/Mercy Corps

Another few kilometers along the road from the camp we saw the impact of the landslides. Huge rivers of dried mud plunged down the mountain and into the lake. The road had only just been cleared for passage, and in one place a brave driver held downed powerlines up for our car to pass under.

Some houses had been buried almost to the roof in mud. Others had been swept away completely, leaving only the roofing sheets floating in the shallows of the lake. We passed mud slide after mud slide and, after circumnavigating the lake, headed home to begin planning a distribution of tool kits and household kits for the area's displaced families to start rebuilding.

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Blog Post Posted October 9, 2009, 9:47 am by Elpido Soplantila

Lead them to a better future

I started my day with a cup of tea while reading a local newspaper, Padang Ekspres, this morning. The headline for today’s edition read “70 percent of the business economy is destroyed.”

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake has affected Indonesia's West Sumatra province in so many aspects. It's not only about ruined buildings or damaged houses; not only about deaths and missing people. Besides all those losses, the economy is also falling down.

So many hotels, schools, shopping centers, markets and even companies are destroyed. So many staff died. Even though most survived, it’s not easy for them to start again.

But the worst impact of this economic problem is the suffering and burden among earthquake-affected families.

Elok, a fish farmer, saw his ponds destroyed by the earthquake and now wonders where his family's income will come from. Photo: Doddy Suparta/Mercy Corps

Elok, a 51-year-old fish farmer from Ulakan village, lost the fish ponds that generated his family income.

Basril — father of three children — once ran a small business together with his wife in order to fulfill their daily needs, but now faces the reality that the earthquake has made his family’s life worse.

The news reports that West Sumatra really needs a lot of money to recover the economy. Mercy Corps is really eager to help affected families to start generating income again but, with the current funding sources, we realize how hard it will be to meet these overwhelming needs.

But we won’t stop now. So many needs are still out there. People need to survive.

“Beyond the immediate tragedy of this disaster, lies a longer term impact on the economy, which has been severely affected. While we are working on alleviating the suffering of people made homeless, we are also looking ahead to how we can help get the markets and supply chains functioning again — and make them more resilient so they will come back more quickly from future disasters”, explained Malka Older, Mercy Corps Indonesia's Program Director, who leads the emergency response team on the ground.

Mercy Corps strongly believes that supporting people like Elok and Basril to start their livelihoods will lead all survivors to a better future.

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Blog Post Posted October 9, 2009, 1:57 am by Tanty Pranawisanty

A happy moment amid the ruins

Rendra (at back) plays with his two friends and a rusty old bicycle in the village of Suranti, where Mercy Corps delivered hygiene kits to earthquake-affected families. Photo: Tanty Pranawisanty/Mercy Corps

I was busy overseeing the distribution of hygiene kits for 167 earthquake-affected households in Surantiah village when I was suddenly attracted by the sound of laughter from outside the hall where we were handing out supplies.

Three little children shared the joy and laughter of riding a rusty, dusty bicycle around. From their appearance, I guess they are around six or seven years old. I offered them candies that I always bring whenever I go to the field and, without hesitation, they took some with smiles on their faces. Soon after, I had a few wonderful moments taking their pictures as they rode the bike and laughing out loud when I showed them the previews on my digital camera.

When I asked what were they doing there, one of them — a boy named Rendra — said that they were there waiting for his mother, Ibu Yanti, who is a member of the Disaster Preparedness Team in this village. Mercy Corps — through a partnership with a local organization, Kogami —has formed these teams in each sub-district and trained them for disaster preparedness. Ibu Yanti was in charge of arranging this distribution for her village.

The two girls playing with Rendra were also waiting for their mothers, who were in line to get hygiene kits. They are all neighbours in Surantiah and they all had the same story for me. Their houses and school were badly damaged by the quake. At the moment, they are out of school and still have no idea when they will be back to study and see the rest of their schoolmates.

But one thing's for sure: they really understand what has happened and, sadly, what might happen in the future when another disaster strikes. They have learned from Rendra’s mother and other Disaster Preparedness Team members what should they do if an earthquake happens again.

But today, they all seemed very happy playing with their rusty bike, the only belonging left from the earthquake. Deep inside, I do wish that they will always have happy moments like I saw today — and I hope their school will be rebuilt soon.

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Blog Post Posted October 8, 2009, 7:44 pm by Carol Ward

The business of relief in Samoa

Staff from South Pacific Business Development, Mercy Corps' local partner, pack relief supplies for delivery to poor women who lost everything in last week's tsunami. Photo: Carol Ward/Mercy Corps

In order to bury and mourn those who died in the tsunami on September 29, today was designated a half-day national holiday by the Government of Western Samoa. This meant that the staff at South Pacific Business Development, our local partner, had a lot to do. In addition to their normal work of servicing the loans made to poor business women, they purchased items for relief packages and made the arrangements for distributing them tomorrow to women who were severely affected by the tsunami.

In the meantime, we have been working out the details of a public works program that we hope to initiate — if we can find funding. We expect that temporary employment would reintroduce cash flows into beneficiary communities, help to revitalise local markets and restore basic economic functions. There will be an Early Recovery Coordination meeting tomorrow, where we hope to discuss our plans with other agencies like the Red Cross, to avoid duplication of efforts and harmonise details.

I went to the bank today to change money and found that the U.S. dollar has fallen against the Western Samoan Tala for the third day in a row. This will make all our programs relatively more expensive. As this is an island where almost everything is imported, making things very pricey. I was shocked to find that a wheelbarrow costs about U.S. $250!

Right, I had better get back to helping people pack things up!

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Blog Post Posted October 8, 2009, 12:46 pm by Elpido Soplantila

Your help means a lot

Today Mercy Corps has done a lot.

Starting very early in the morning, a number of staff made a run to our warehouse to pack the hygiene kits that we'd be distributing later in the day, while the procurement and logistics team procured more supplies for the next distribution. Another team did an assessment in Agam district, where hundreds of people have died and tons are still missing.

The distribution for today is quite special because two donors — USAID and ECHO — visited the affected areas in Pesisir Selatan with our emergency response team and joined us in the distribution process. I was responsible for accompanying one of the staff members from USAID Indonesia, who flew from Jakarta to Padang to see the great work that Mercy Corps is doing on the ground.

Basril's five-year-old daughter stands in the wreckage of what once once her bedroom in the village of Balai Sinayan, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Elpido Soplantila/Mercy Corps

We departed from Padang around 11 A.M. and, once again, we enjoyed views of the beautiful white sandy beaches and the green hills of the province as we drove toward our destination. But the amazing scenery was soon tempered by reality when we arrived at one of the distribution points in Balai Sinayan sub village, Pesisir Selatan district. Although this area was not as devastated compared to some places in Padang Pariaman, more than 50 families lost their houses and belongings here.

In Balai Sinayan I met Basril, a father of three children, in front of his damaged house. He told me how he was so worried when the earthquake happened. On that day, Basril and the whole family — including his 71-year-old mother —were attending a communal volleyball game in the village. From far away, he saw some houses fall down. The whole family ran back in fear to see their houses. The children were crying while he tried to enter the house, where he found that all the bedroom walls were cracked and the kitchen broken into pieces.

Now, they have to stay at his brother’s house because not a single room in their old house can be occupied anymore.

“Honestly, I don’t know how to start," Basril explained as tears fell down his face. "In the 2007 earthquake, we lost our small kiosk where we sold a few items to make family income. We hadn’t even been able to start that small business again, and now, our house is destroyed.”

I patted his shoulder for a while as we stood there quietly. When I thanked him for sharing his story, he suddenly said terima kasih which means "thank you."

Here in Balai Sinayan today, we distributed hygiene kits — soap, detergent, toothbrushes and toothpaste, women's sanitary napkins, buckets, blankets, and other household items — to Basril and 385 other families throughout the earthquake-damaged Pesisir Selatan district.

Just a few minutes before I left his house, Basril shook my hand and, again, he said terima kasih.

The hygiene kit means a lot to him.

Terima kasih means a lot to me and the team here.

And your help and support mean a lot to Basril and thousands of affected families in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

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Blog Post Posted October 8, 2009, 12:35 pm by Tanty Pranawisanty

I hope the world got my message

I never imagined that I would be interviewed by an international news TV station. But there I was, on a live report from the field, with Al Jazeera asking me to tell the world what I seeing. They asked me about the rapid needs assessments that Mercy Corps conducted within 48 hours after the massive earthquake hit Padang, West Sumatra.

I must admit that I was bit nervous and less confident — in part because I'd missed my morning shower due to the lack of water all over Padang. But I went to meet Al Jazeera’s crews, who were ready and standing by in front of the fatally-damaged Ambacang Hotel, where hundreds of hotel guests were trapped under the collapsed building and buried alive there.

I was very surprised to know that I would be interviewed by Veronica Pedrosa, the reporter that I often saw on TV, updating news from all over the world. It made me feel quite edgy.

After having a minute for self calming, I started to realize that this was a big chance for me to let the world know what was going on in this place. The cry for help from the survivors who had lost their family members, the view of the children who were sleeping under the tent in an open areas, and the family members who tried to search for things in the ruins — all those things suddenly gave me my confidence back.

And that morning, live from the field, I was finally able to spread the message to the world that there are thousands of survivors who need immediate help. They need clean water and food. They need hygiene kits. They need recovery kits to clean up debris. And most of all, they need to have the world know about what happened to them.

It was only a ten-minute interview, but I hope the world got my message.

Soon afterward, I received phone calls and text messages from my Mercy Corps colleges who happened to be watching that live report. I also got a sweet phone call from my kids, who were also watching me on TV. All those supportive messages and responses made me smile.

I felt so fine the rest of that day and very grateful about my life. That afternoon, while enjoying my cup of hot black coffee, I remembered the famous quote from Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in this world.” I smiled to myself for choosing the right life path and being member of Mercy Corps' big family. It's the best decision I have ever made.

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Blog Post Posted October 8, 2009, 10:52 am by Malka Older

A few comforts as they start to rebuild

Dozens of households in the small, earthquake-stricken village of Surantiah received hygiene kits - which included mosquito nets, blankets, towels, toothpaste, detergent and water containers - from our emergency response team today. Photo: Malka Older/Mercy Corps

Today Mercy Corps carried out a distribution in Surantiah, a village in the district of Pesisir Selatan, about three and a half hours south of Padang City. The drive took us on a winding road between mountains and paddy fields on one side, and the sea on the other. In some places, the road still showed the effects of the landslides that the earthquake had knocked down over it.

In Painan, the small city that is the capital of Pesisir Selatan, we stopped to meet with government officials at the informal headquarters they had set up to gather and disseminate earthquake information. Painan is a lovely city, set in a hollow surrounded by hills and open to a bay — a nightmare scenario for a tsunami. Along the main roads of the town are small signs marking the tsunami evacuation route up into the hills.

After listening to the government team explain the damages from the earthquake and the small assistance they had been receiving, we continued along the coast to Surantiah, a small town clustered around a muddy but extensive market area. The distribution was in the village office, where women and a few men crowded into the room and then walked up one by one, smiling shyly as their names were called, to receive hygiene kits: buckets, mosquito nets, blankets, soap, sanitary products and supplies for other basic needs.

As the distribution continued in the hall, we went around to visit some of the damaged houses of the people we were distributing to. The elderly, fragile men and women with colorful headscarves invited us into their elderly, fragile homes. The brick walls, held together with thick crusts of mortar, had just crumbled and fallen away during the earthquake. In other houses the cement floor was cracked into shards.

Most of the families living in these houses had moved into neighbors’ or family houses, but some had just stayed where they were, sleeping in a bed that looked out into nothingness where a wall had been. When we asked, they proudly showed us the hygiene kits they had just received, to give them a few comforts as they start to rebuild.

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