A group of vegetable sellers wear ponchos, face masks and helmets to protect themselves from ash as they use motorcycles to transport donated food to villages affected by Mount Merapi’s eruptions at a temporary shelter in Jumoyo village in the city of Magelang. Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta, courtesy www.alertnet.org.

“The volcano was rumbling all night long,” said Yenni Suryani, CRS Country Manager in Indonesia. “You could feel the tremors 12 miles away.”

Approximately 70 people were killed in the latest eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano after a gas cloud overnight hit surrounding villages with thunderous force. An estimated 75,000 residents have been evacuated from the area and more than 100 people have reportedly been killed since the eruptions began.

Catholic Relief Services is working with our local Caritas partner in the Archdiocese of Semarang to provide immediate assistance in the form of blankets, sarongs, sleeping mats and masks to approximately 10,000 people in the affected areas. Authorities widened the “danger zone” around the volcano from 9 miles to 12 miles.
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Volunteers carry the body of a victim of the Mount Merapi eruption at Kinarrejo village in Sleman, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, October 27, 2010. Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta, courtesy www.alertnet.org

One of the world’s most active volcanoes, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, erupted this week, spewing ash and gas down its slopes and killing 25 people. Thousands of people, many covered in white ash, fled the area before the eruptions and retreated to evacuation centers in Central Java. About 30 people are being treated at local hospitals for burns and respiratory problems resulting from the volcanic ash.
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Mr. Mawardi, a 71-year old grandfather from Dama Gadang village on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, built a cottage using his ancient axe, hammer and saw, without any assistance other than a few days when his son visited him. Photo by CRS staff

One of the highlights of working on the CRS transitional shelter program in response to the September 30th earthquake that hit West Sumatra, Indonesia, is the opportunity to see people taking initiative to rebuild their own lives and to help their neighbors. Among the more than 10,000 households in West Sumatra that have received transitional shelter support from CRS during the past four months there are many remarkable success stories.

One particularly inspirational case is that of Mr. Mawardi, a 71-year old grandfather from Dama Gadang village who suffers from lung disease. He brings a hopeful attitude to whatever happens in life. Though he is frail and alone, he has received very little support from his family or other people around him. But he sees that they also experienced difficulties following the earthquake, so instead of waiting for them to help him, he has helped himself and then looked for ways to serve others.
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The U.S. Geological Survey has reported a 7.8 magnitude earthquake off the Sumatra coast near the Aceh province. A tsunami watch has been issued.

In 2004, a quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. CRS recently completed a five-year recovery project in Aceh. On September 12, 2009, Sumatra was rocked by a 8.2 magnitude quake from which it is still recovering.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Indonesia and our CRS and Caritas staff who work in the area.

Jawanis, a 49-year-old widow who lost her arm in a farming accident, stands near the new home provided to her by CRS after an earthquake destroyed her house in Indonesia. Photo by CRS staff

As generous support pours in for Haiti, CRS is also continuing its response to a powerful quake that struck Indonesia in September 2009. CRS staffer Josephine Wijiastuti sends us this update about relief efforts six months after the quake:

Jawanis, 49 years old, is a widow who lives with her two sons and her mother. She is a farm laborer whose principal livelihood is collecting pinang (betel nut). Ten years ago, her arm was cut at the elbow in an accident with a rice-cutting machine; she lost the lower arm.

Jawanis received a cash grant to build her “pondok,” a small dwelling. She used the cash to purchase cement, wooden planks, metal sheeting, paint, plywood and labor; then she used materials salvaged from her quake-ruined home to complete the pondok. It took only 15 days to complete her pondok.
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Indonesian villagers who survived an earthquake have been able to build transitional homes thanks to grants from CRS. Photo: Josephine Wijiastuti/CRS

“I am so grateful to receive this support. Because of earthquake, my house was flattened,” says Ramaini, a 65-year-old widow who cares for her three orphaned grandchildren in a village in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Like many other villagers struck by a powerful quake in late September 2009, Ramaini salvaged some timber and metal roof sheets for use in building a pondok, the local term for a temporary shelter. But she needed extra help to buy additional roofing sheets and wood, and to hire workers to make a house.

Catholic Relief Services is providing cash grants to Indonesian villagers who are repairing their damaged homes or building transitional shelters. “I will surely use the money I just received to build a pondok,” says Ramaini. “If the money is not enough, I will cover the wall with tarp. The most important to me is roofing as it is now rainy season.” CRS uses spot checks to verify that the money is used for its intended purpose–building materials–and helps families find skilled labor.
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CRS continues to distribute essential items to families affected by the West Sumatra earthquake, including tarps, blankets and sleeping mats. “Our front wall fell down,” says one beneficiary named Sudirman (in this part of Indonesia, many people use just one name). “We will use the tarp to cover the wall.”
Here is a video clip of a distribution in action, captured by Regional Information Officer Debbie DeVoe in the hamlet of Kapa Utara where about 120 houses were damaged by the quake.

CRS’ emergency response team for the West Sumatra earthquake is already working as a well-oiled machine. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Every morning around 7:30 a.m., CRS’ emergency response team in Padang, Indonesia, gathers around their one conference table. The team—which two weeks after the quake is now 25 strong—includes CRS Indonesia staff, CRS employees from around the world who have come in on temporary assignments, and newly rehired staff who assisted CRS with our tsunami response in Aceh.

The team meets in the living room of a house CRS rents—a house that now serves as the main office and guesthouse. The space is tight, and so are the relationships. Five years of emergency response and recovery work in Aceh have created strong bonds of friendship and trust among many of the members. These are staff members used to getting things done fast under suboptimal conditions—and on little sleep, whether crashing on the floor of a diocesan building right after the quake or now sharing a room with mattresses thrown on the floor.
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An extended family of 22 living in 5 houses are building a transitional shelter to house the children until they can rebuild their permanent homes. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Irwan Etendi’s family had never experienced anything like the earthquake that hit West Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 30.

“We were all inside when we felt the shaking,” he says. “We all ran out—even my father-in-law who hadn’t finished his [daily] prayers.”

The extended family of 22 members lives on a large compound in five cement block houses. Now one house is a heap of pink concrete rubble. The other four have crumbled walls, extensive cracks and mounds of rubble strewn across the floors.

“That night we all slept on the front porch,” Irwan’s sister Arnis says.

Two weeks later, they are doing a little better but face a long road to recovery. Tarps, soap, and a toolkit provided by Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Indonesia and other Caritas partners are helping.
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Here in Padang, I’m sitting with a mixed team of over 30 people from all over the world and around Indonesia who work for various Caritas entities from different countries (CRS is part of that international network of Catholic charities devoted to reducing poverty and campaigning for social justice). We are sitting in a hot cinder block building which I understand is a Sunday School building under normal circumstances. Off on one side, roasting spices make us cough as some women are constantly cooking to feed the crowd. The group meets every night at 9:30 p.m. to review the day’s activities: traveling to distant villages to see how the earthquake affected them, receiving shipments of tarps, or distributing hygiene kits to affected villages. Most work past midnight, the begin again early the next day.
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