Juan Christie's blog

The Mercy Corps Indonesia-sponsored Disaster Preparedness Camp was packed with 274 students and teachers from 12 schools from Padang City and Agam District. Photo: Juan Christie/Mercy Corps

Although the Mercy Corps West Sumatra (Indonesia) team's schedule is always packed with activities, this July has been particularly busy month for our team. We've held a series of events, all related with disaster preparedness and/ or disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities. The participants ranged from students to communities and government officials.

The first activity was a Disaster Preparedness Camp, held July 8-10 in Puncak Lawang, Agam District. The event was packed with 274 students and teachers from 12 schools from Padang City and Agam District. These schools has been receiving assistance from our PREPARE SumBar program to establish the School Disaster Preparedness Team (SDPT). They've been receiving various trainings on DRR such as First Aid, Evacuation Planning and Hazard Assessment.

The participants spent three days and two nights in Puncak Lawang, which is located about 1260 meters (4,100 feet) above sea level. The generally cool weather and usual afternoon fog proved to be no barrier for the participants to participate in various competitions: First Aid Responder, Disaster Preparedness Campaign and various quizzes. Additional skills that participants learned included fire training and camp management.

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The mixed participants of the training. Photo: Juan Christie

I travelled three hours from my home base in Padang, Indonesia to the city of Solok to check out the facilitator training for the Disaster Preparedness Teams (DPTs) held by Mercy Corps' PREPARE SumBar and our local partner, Jemari Sakato. The DPTs came from four Padang City sub-districts — Sungai Pisang, Gates Nan XX, Pasia Nan Tigo, and Air Manis. Each subdistrict sent out seven members to this training.

One thing that immediately caught my mind was the composition of the DPTs: among the 28 participants, I saw six young ladies and two elderly men, in addition to some men in their thirties and forties. This is a great start to have people from what are often described as "vulnerable groups" (i.e. youth, children, elderly people and women) represented in the DPTs.

I asked the two elders from the group — 65-year-old Herman and 70-year-old Burhanuddin — about what their motivation had been in joining the DPT. "Being old does not mean that you have to sit around and doing nothing," Herman quickly replied. "I will not do that, not while I still can stand and do something. Joining this DPT is a good exercise for me.”

”I want do something for my community, no matter how little," Burhanuddin added. "Also, I want to learn about disaster to cope with my fear.”

PREPARE SumBar — which is funded by the disaster preparedness arm of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department — is training 8 DPTs, 12 SDPTs (School Disaster Preparedness Team) and working with leading government agencies in around the area. With this capacity building, it is expected that the community will be able to face further disasters better, making them more secure and resilient.

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November 16 marked my one-year service anniversary with Mercy Corps West Sumatra. I realized this fact upon the ferry that I rode in with four other members of the Indonesia Response Team (IRT), as we docked in Bungus Port, Padang after a 15-hour journey from Sikakap, where we've based our emergency response for the tsunami-stricken Mentawai Islands.

It has been a challenging year for me, as a Communications and Monitoring-Evaluation Officer here. Lucky I always have the fullest support from the rest of the team. Over the course of the year, we have gone from eight programs, down to five programs, then two programs before revving up with new programs for the devastated Mentawai Islands.

When I arrived, Mercy Corps West Sumatra worked in two districts that are vulnerable to disaster: Padang Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan. Earlier this year, we added Padang City and Agam District. This month, after disaster struck, Mentawai Islands joined the list.

With so much happening here, I am fortunate for always been presented with endless opportunities to learn something new and unlock hidden potential, both in me and my colleagues.

My mentor said this to me before I decided to take this post in West Sumatra: ”If you do not challenge yourself, how will you develop your capacity? Do not feel too comfortable with what you have now, always be thirsty for new opportunities!”

I am glad I took her advice and came here. It’s only been 12 months and I’ve signed up for another year, ready for new challenges as well as new learning opportunities.

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It had already been a week since our Director, Erynn Carter, asked me to prepare myself to conduct the Joint Need Assesment for our emergency earthquake and tsunami response in the Mentawai Islands Yet, the tropical cyclone that has been hampering the coasts of West Sumatra and the Mentawai Islands threw off any plans we had.

This is the fact that you must be ready to face when you work in Mentawai, a colleague from an international non-governmental organization (NGO) said. Weather is very essential if you plan to work in Mentawai. Some boat accidents already happened in Mentawai waters, and although they thankfully claimed no lives, they resulted in lost materials and aid for the Mentawai people.

The KRI (Indonesian Battleship) Cirebon 543, which I rode to the Mentawai Islands to help with Mercy Corps' emergency response. Photo: Juan Christie/Mercy Corps

Finally, I had the chance to depart for the disaster-stricken islands on Sunday, November 7. The Indonesian Navy deployed three battle ships, including the one I was in, KRI (Indonesian Battleship) Cirebon 543. We sailed away with some other volunteers and NGO members to Sikakap, where the command center for Mentawai emergency response is situated.

I had no problem with the ten-hour journey across the calm sea, especially knowing that some of Mercy Corps staff had already conducted some distributions to survivors using simple long boats in the middle of the rain and rough sea. The usual travel time using passenger boats or ferryboats is around 18 to 22 hours, so being aboard a faster ship was really fortunate for me.

I am here in Mentawai to collect data from other NGOs and enter it into our assessment database. This database, developed by members of the Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) group, was supposedly to be tested out in Jakarta on November 3, 2010. Now, Mercy Corps — as the lead agency — must test it out in real emergency conditions.

Having reliable data is as important as having a targeted distribution of supplies during an emergency response. With good data management, the risk of overlapping assistance in certain areas can be avoided. Thus, the data can later be used to map which areas have been affected by disasters, but have not received any assistance.

So here I am, on the ground at last, in Sikakap, Mentawai. Let’s do this!

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October was a busy month for Mercy Corps and for the people of West Sumatra.

I happened to follow nearly all of Mercy Corps' program activities last month, starting with the One-Year Commemoration Event of the devastating earthquake that hit West Sumatra Province on September 30, 2009. As a part of our disaster awareness campaign, we are constantly reminding people about the importance of having disaster risk awareness in mind. Here are some key events happened in October 2010:

A motorcycle eases across a temporary replacement for the tsunami-damaged bridge that linked the islands of North and South Pagai, Mentawai. Photo: courtesy of Tito/Save the Children

• October 13, 2010 — we had a clean-up day in Padang city, as a part of commemorating the International Disaster Risk Reduction Day. Around 350 people, ranging from fellow non-governmental organizations, government bodies and mountaineering clubs attended the event. The Vice Mayor of Padang City opened the event.
• October 25, 2010 — an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the Pagai Selatan island of Mentawai. The earthquake was felt by the citizens of Padang and — remembering the last big earthquake — some people fled into higher ground. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Body issued a tsunami warning, although withdrawn an hour later.
• October 26, 2010 – we had a Padang City Earthquake and Tsunami Drill. This is in addition to the Padang City Evacuation Map that we distributed on September 30, 2010. Around 3,500 people joined this drill, despite the previous night's earthquake. That afternoon, preliminary reports from the tsunami Mentawai Islands arrived — and it was devastating. The government announced the emergency response to disaster, welcoming any help from the international community as well.
• October 27, 2010 — Mercy Corps sent Wawan Budianto, who had experience working in Mentawai, to do the initial assessment for our emergency response. Arriving the next day, Wawan quickly gathered his old contacts to assess the situation.

In the next two days, three more Mercy Corps staff arrived — including two staff from Jakarta — with 500 tarps and 500 jerry cans to be distributed.

My heart goes to the people of Mentawai and all the emergency responders there. As of now, the unpredictable weather, lack of boats to transport supplies, and damaged infrastructure is making the response harder. In addition, the tsunami changed Mentawai's coastline, meaning that any boats going into the Mentawai's waters must pay highest attention.

With this article, I would like to ask all of you to send your positive energy both to the survivors and the emergency responders. Hopefully, things will get better this month.

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This Wednesday — October 13 — is International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction. It's a day to focus on disaster preparedness and resilience. And since there are few places in the world that have been recently stricken by natural disaster as much as Indonesia, we've been working hard on Disaster Risk Reduction strategy and programs.

Ever since Mercy Corps’ Awareness Campaign and Government Capacity Building (ACGC) Program started in May 2010, it has been engaging closely with all levels of government and society in program activities. Having a local non-governmental organization, Jamari Sakato, involved has proven to be a valuable partnership to the ACGC program and Mercy Corps West Sumatra as a whole.

Prior to this current program, the Public-Private Partnership for Disaster Management (P3DM) had already formed some disaster preparedness teams, which worked on the village level in Padang Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan. Taking this prior experience and lessons learned, the ACGC program has formed three disaster preparedness teams in Padang Pariaman Regency, Pesisir Selatan Regency and Padang City.

In addition, the ACGC program has also worked with several district-level disaster management boards. In addition, the Provincial Disaster Management Board is also engaged with ACGC.

"Mercy Corps could never achieve anything without the support of its stakeholders," said Sean Granville-Ross, Mercy Corps Indonesia Country Director. "These will include the community and the government of all levels. We always do the bottom-up and top-bottom approaches in each of our programs to ensure program sustainability and maximum impact.”

One example of bringing these diverse stakeholders together is the Integrating Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) Results in Regional Development Planning of West Sumatra Province, which took place on September 29. Prior to this event, ACGC programs had conducted three VCAs in Padang Pariaman, Pesisir Selatan and Padang City.

The workshop is now being conducted at the provincial level, and stakeholders at the regional level are discussing the VCA results in their area, as well as looking for ways to include them on the regional development plans for the West Sumatra Province. This planning will help the province, which has hard-hit by last year's earthquake, better prepare for future natural disasters.

Mercy Corps Indonesia believes that mainstreaming the disaster risk reduction activities in the government’s budget will have a great impact to vulnerable communities.

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Today, September 30 here in West Sumatra, Indonesia, brings remembrance of the earthquake a year ago that killed more than 1,000 people and affected the livelihoods of an estimated 1.25 million more. It's also a reminder of all the work the Mercy Corps team has done here since then — and there has been a lot.

Recently, I paused in my work to feel a measure of happiness and a relief when we finally got our hands on a long-awaited Distribution Training Video. The video has been shot in the field during the last days of distribution to earthquake survivors at the end of February 2010. Ever since, Nigel Harvey — the director — had been spending long hours in editing.

Shooting the emergency distribution training video. Photo: Juan Christie/Mercy Corps

The film was meant to be used as a training video by Mercy Corps' global team on how to do a good distribution during an emergency. It was voiced and sub-titled in English for that purpose, but we also got to thinking of having it voiced and sub-titled in Indonesian as well.

In this close-to-30-minute video, we try to capture every single thing that's required in preparing a distribution — starting from the survey, through preparation of the supplies, until the distribution. In the end, we added a little bit about handling the crowd surge that is likely to happen during any distribution.

We actually had a lot of fun filming, having the beneficiaries involved in the live distribution process. Mercy Corps staff were involved as the key actors in the distribution. We even included our West Sumatra Director, Erynn Carter and our Country Director, Sean Granville-Ross, to share their advice in the video.

Personally, I considered myself lucky, because I was deeply involved in the making of the video as a part of my communications job. I had the chance to work with a professional like Nigel, which was a valuable experience for me. I would never imagine how lights and shadows are such essentials in video making, as well as being fully prepared — including having extra fully-charged batteries and bringing extra cameras. Those were the best two weeks I've had so far in this job.

Oh, by the way, the video is titled “People Come First, But Planning Makes It Better." I think it's a powerful title that depicts how we should always put people first in every emergency intervention that we do as a humanitarian organization, and how we can empower survivors by having good and thorough planning.

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September 8, 2010 was the last day of working in Mercy Corps West Sumatra before the office closed for the Eid al Fitri, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadhan. I joined the Urban Team in distributing supplies to the orphanages in and around the city of Padang. The distribution was a continuation of a previous survey that was conducted to learn about the needs of each orphanage.

The caretaker of the Puti Bungsu Orphanage receives supplies donation from Natasha, a Mercy Corps Urban Program Officer. Photo: Juan Christie/Mercy Corps

The first orphanage was the Putra Bangsa ("Sons of the Nation") Orphanage, at which we distributed six boxes of children's books and a table tennis set. While the younger boys soon immersed themselves with the books, the teenagers anxiously helped construct the table tennis set. As soon as we left, they were already playing.

Next up was the all-female Aisyiyah Orphanage. Here, we distributed more boxes of books and nine study desks. After that, we headed to the Lubuk Kilangan Orphanage and distributed another six boxes of books and a table tennis set.

It was already past 1 PM and the hunger of the Ramadhan fast was taking its toll, but we moved along to the last two orphanages. We reached the Al Barkah Orphanage and handed over three boxes of books and the remaining nine study desks. We handed over the last five packs of books and six wardrobes to the Puti Bungsu Orphanage.

In this second day of distribution, Mercy Corps reached at least 226 orphans. It felt especially significant on the day before the Eid al Fitri, a day of celebration and thanks. The warm reception and big smiles that we received during distribution made the day even more special.

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Last month, the Mercy Corps team here in West Sumatra — of which I am a member —delivered sewing machines to 85 local women who were affected by last year's earthquake. We gave them a complete package, instead of just giving away the machine, so that they could get their small businesses up and running right away. So each women got the sewing machine, 14 cones of seven colored yarns, 12 packs of needles, two liters of lubricating oil and one roll of fabric. Quite a haul, really — and kind of hard to be transported if you are using a motorcycle.

A local seamstress, who'd been affected by last year's devastating earthquake, receives a sewing machine and materials from Mercy Corps for her small business. Photo: Juan Christie/Mercy Corps

So the women who'd received the sewing machine and other materials hired motorcycles with sidecars attached to them. Some of the women shared the cost of having a sidecar to haul two packages to their respective houses. As word spread, more motorcycles sidecars came to the rescue. One particularly enterprising group of women from a nearby village even managed to hire a small pick-up truck, hauling four packages in one go!

I think we could safely say that we were helping to rev up the local economy by providing an opportunity for these motorcycle drivers to earn an extra income with their sidecars. One driver said that he earned twice as much as a typical day from his two trips to four houses. Another said that, besides earning extra income, he could help his neighbors with the sewing machine and other materials they'd received.

We're expecting an even bigger economic impact from the day's distribution of sewing machines: as these women resume their seamstress businesses, they'll not only sell their creations but also use that income to buy more materials as well food and other supplies for their household needs. It's a multiplier effect that began with getting the machines and materials home.

With the holy month of Ramadhan underway, we are hoping that this year they can have a merry Eid al-Fitr and finally move on from the devastating 2009 earthquake.

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I usually did not go to trainings as either speaker or facilitator. I admit that public speaking is not my thing, be it speaking to five persons or bigger crowds. I tend to channel my anxiety by talking as fast as I could, hoping along the time that nobody asked my questions so I can go back to my seat.

I have a totally different view after I attended the Training of Trainers (ToT) held by Mercy Corps’ West Sumatra Hygiene Promotion Team at the Pangeran City Hotel in Padang City.

Here, the team provided trainings for 25 health cadres from sub-district Kuranji and Kurao Pagang. Also, four health officials from local PUSKESMAS/ POSYANDU (health posts) attended the ToT. Mercy Corps also invited the City Health Board (or DKK/ Dewan Kesehatan Kota) to send their staffs as presenters for the first day of the training.

Here’s where things grow more fun: Mercy Corps’ staffs facilitated the ToT and even delivered some of the materials during the ToT!

I’m telling you, seeing how the cadres were actively involved in every process of the ToT and how the Hygiene Promotion team led them through each agenda really ignited my spirit. I even agreed when Teuku Ambral, the team leader for Hygiene Promotion, offered me to lead a session.

Lucky me, just before my session, Teuku gave the participants facilitation techniques as well as what it takes to make a good facilitator. Shamefully (since I lack many of them) but thankfully, I absorbed these materials quickly and put them into practices in an instant.

Of course, it is very rare that your first attempt is perfect. At the end of my session, I opened up a little secret to the participants: “This is my first session as a facilitator. Hopefully it can motivate all of you the same as your courage and spirit moved me.” The participants nodded, smiled, and clapped their hands respectfully – so I think it is safe to say that I pulled it off.

In the end, I led another session the next day. A big thanks to the Hygiene Promotion team and Mercy Corps for the time and opportunity.

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