This Too Shall Pass

Tugini and her son outside their makeshift tent in Pundong, Indonesia. Photo: Debbie Tomasowa/Mercy Corps

As the sun started to set, its fading light dimly illuminated scattered pieces of metal, wood and unrecognizable debris that were once shaped like houses for hundreds of Javanese families. This nightfall, people were once again preparing to live in complete and utter darkness, left with nothing but uncertainty about what the next day would hold for themselves and their children.

Pundong sub-district is one of the worst affected districts of Bantul, Central Java, Indonesia. Today is the fourth day that families in this area are living without proper shelter, clean water, food or electricity since an earthquake shook the city of Yogyakarta and its vicinity on May 27, 2006, leaving more than 6,200 people dead.

I am here with the Mercy Corps team: a couple dozen experienced emergency workers, some of them actually from this devastated area. As we did during the not-so-distant Indian Ocean Tsunami, we're working around the clock to ensure that survivors' most urgent needs are met. Their stories are often hard to bear.

Sifting through the wreckage

I approach a frail, elderly woman as she walks slowly through the ruins of what used to be her house. Mrs. Sugiyanti, as she prefers to be called, tries to scavenge for items through pieces of scattered glass, metal, wood and broken bricks with a troubled look on her face. She uses only her tiny hands and wears a disturbingly thin pair of yellow flip-flop sandals to wade through the jagged wreckage. I wince as she goes through the rubble and debris, risking rusty nails and other sharp objects.

After a few moments, she begins to tell me the story of how she lost her son in the earthquake.

"He just laid there, with heavy wooden bars falling on top of him," she says, choking on her words. "My son just called out to his older brother; help me, help me!"

Mrs. Sugiyanti visibly remembers the last moments of her beloved son before she breaks into tears.

"Not only have I lost a son…I also don't have a home anymore," she laments. Her story is all too familiar to most survivors of this devastating earthquake. So many lives are either lost or forever altered.

Survivors face challenges

Survivors here feel some measure of good fortune, but life after the earthquake is proving difficult for them.

Although she survived the earthquake that demolished her hometown of Pundong, Tugini, a woman in her late thirties, now lives in an army-issued tent with her son, husband and scattered members of twenty other families. From a glance, it looks like there must be about a hundred people sweltering in this small space. All of them have lost their homes; some have lost much more.

"We are the lucky to have survived this disaster," she says with a worried expression on her face. "My concern now is that the area's children can't go to school anymore."

Rina is another earthquake survivor sharing the same tent as the Tugini family. Here with her husband and three children, she is concerned about hygiene and the lack of a proper toilet facility.

"We now share the two old wells with the others when we have to take turns doing everything from taking a bath to washing our clothes," she explains. "People often don't remember, but we also have to live sanitary so that we will not be vulnerable to so many diseases."

"To me, we are lucky enough to have survived this," says Bambang Wintolo, a 44 year-old former security guard at the local public health facility. "I think we need to quickly move to get some help and get back on our feet again. The very first thing we need is a decent roof over our heads. It's still raining heavily here and we have all been having a hard time when it rains."

Finding their strength again

The Mercy Corps team is listening to these stories and taking immediate action. Our team has responded quickly during this emergency phase, providing 1,000 "survival kits" containing tarpaulins and blankets for families to use as temporary shelter.

In addition the agency has also committed to provide 1,000 hygienic kits that include a bar of soap, shampoo, antiseptic liquid, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a feminine napkin pack and a plastic water scooper, packaged in a functional plastic bucket. Specifically, the hygiene items are considered a critical solution to the community's concerns about the spread of preventable diseases.

Families here in Pundong believe that they will find their strength once again. They have tremendous willingness to move on and persevere to recover from this tragedy quickly.

Survivors here have an amazing attitude, summed up in a single stirring phrase: as with the tsunami, this too shall pass.

For more background on Mercy Corps' response to the Java Earthquake or to make a donation, please click here.