Mercy Corps Mobilizes Relief Effort

A young boy stands in the wreckage of his home in Solok, Indonesia. Photo: courtesy of Jon Bugge/Save the Children

A team of Mercy Corps relief workers assessed damage and conducted relief operations in the hard-hit town of Solok following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Tuesday, March 6. Our emergency team coordinated these relief efforts with local and international organizations, and made distributions of critical supplies to families.

Mercy Corps, which runs a major children's health program in West Sumatra, is one of the only international relief agencies working in the area.

After the earthquake, more than seventy people were reported dead and hundreds displaced.

A rapid assessment in the town of Solok, near the epicenter of the earthquake, found that 432 houses, 14 schools and 37 businesses were either severely damaged or completely destroyed. In Solok alone, there were 15 fatalities and 1,728 people were displaced from their homes. Local water systems were also disrupted, leaving vulnerable displaced residents without reliable access to clean water.

How we responded

The resulting response was a partnership between Mercy Corps and Save the Children, focusing on school supplies, tents, clean up kits, non-food items and provision of water for affected communities in Solok. CARE provided technical support throughout the assessment phase of the emergency response.

During its response, Mercy Corps

• Assisted eight schools by providing classroom-sized tents,
• Distributed more than 4,000 school kits,
• Distributed more than 750 clean-up kits and 800 family kits, and
• Provided potable water to more than 4,000 individuals.

Mercy Corps' overall response, from initial assessments through the wide range of distributions, took approximately nine days. A coordination meeting between humanitarian organizations and local government officials took place on March 20, when it was confirmed that emergency response had been completed.

Mercy Corps' work in Indonesia

Mercy Corps was well-placed to respond to this latest disaster to hit Indonesia.

Through its Sumatra Healthy Schools Program, the agency is already serving more than 170,000 students and teachers at schools on the island. Mercy Corps provides fortified soy milk, de-worming pills and education about health, hygiene and clean water in four Sumatran provinces.

Mercy Corps has extensive experience responding to the needs of vulnerable Indonesian families. For the past several years, our 525 in-country staff have helped more than 1,000,000 Indonesians affected by poverty, conflict and disaster.

The agency provided rapid relief to survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and continues to help over 423,000 tsunami survivors return to their home villages, rebuild their communities and establish strong, vibrant local economies.