Terre des hommes

Interview with Audrey

Audrey Bollier, Itinerant Psycho-social Delegate for ‘Terre des hommes – child relief’, describes the current situation in Indonesia and Tdh’s activities after the earthquake of September 30, 2009.

What is the overall objective of Tdh’s intervention in Indonesia?
In the first phase of the project, our main objective was the distribution of relief goods, for example setting up emergency kitchens to provide food for the population. We did this in close cooperation with Tdh Netherlands, and indispensable partner in the region.

In the second phase, the focus was more on psycho-social aspects and on child protection, mainly by strengthening the mechanisms already in place. After natural disasters it is of particular importance to create children friendly spaces, and employing the so-called “case management system”. We cooperate closely with formal entities, like institutions and government authorities, etc. and informal resources, like community leaders, teachers, headmasters and other influential persons in the communities. An important cooperation partner are the ‘Arisan’, a group of women within the community.
The case of each child has to be evaluated individually, because some children are affected more than others, and there are different degrees of distress and corresponding needs. After conflicts or natural disasters about 10% of children is more vulnerable than others and need special care.
Preventive measures are key, because sometimes signes of distress are apparent until some time after the event.

Why 10%?
Well, the definition of “vulnerable” is important. We are not only talking about psychologically vulnerable, but also vulnerable in terms of a lack of care, lack of financial resources, or lack of education (children who drop out of school are more vulnerable to child labor).

So, either the earthquake destroyed a balance, or aggravated an already unbalanced situation. What was the situation of children in Indonesia like before the earthquake?

The regions where we work are mainly rural areas, where most people are farmers. In Indonesia, and particularly on the island of Sumatra, earthquakes occur quite frequently. Each earthquake does not only destroy their homes, but also their livelihoods. Access to education or health care is often blocked. Sometimes families return to their destroyed houses, which in turn puts the physical and psychological well-being of the children at risk. This is why we try to integrate measures to sensitize parents for these kinds of risks into our capacity building activities.

What is the situation now? Are communities still vulnerable, several months after the earthquake?
Sometimes it is hard to evaluate the over-all situation. Since we are dealing with rural areas you see vast landscapes where you don’t have the impression of a disaster. This is, by the way, typical for an earthquake. Some buildings are completely erased, while others remain largely untouched.

Immediately after the earthquake the situation in Indonesia received a lot of attention. Everybody was talking of solidarity, but after a while media coverage receded.

When we arrived in February to implement the second phase of our project, many NGOs were already leaving. Many were surprised when we announced our commitment for 18 months. Many of the leaving organizations were happy to indicate areas of intervention.

Why did other organizations leave so soon after the earthquake? Was it because there were new emergency situations that demanded their attention, like Haiti?
I think it was partly due to a lack of financial means, but also because we were entering into the second phase of emergency relief. As you know there are three kinds of development aid: emergency response, early recovery and development cooperation. The second type involves much less personnel than the first.

You mentioned that earthquakes in the region occur quite frequently. Does this fact not lead to some resilience in the population?
To a limited extend, yes. But there are some good mechanisms in place, and we try to strengthen them in our capacity building efforts.

Are the children back to normal?
Since the population experiences earthquakes on a frequent basis, daily activities, like going to school, were taken up again in those buildings that remained relatively untouched, only a few days after the earthquake. So you may get the impression that everything is back to normal, but when talking to the children you learn that they still do not feel safe. We actually asked some children about their hopes and fears under the heading ‘5 questions – 5 solutions’. The results really show that children are still lacking some basic needs, even several months after the earthquake. Some only wish to be able to take a bath, others express their fear to go to school, or describe conflicts in their families as an aftermath of the earthquake. They wish for new cloths, more recreation activities, or more support from the government.