What’s the situation on the ground now?
 Rescue efforts in city of Padang have been heroic but have provided so little result for the families seeking loved ones. Meanwhile relief efforts in the more remote areas outside of the city are met with scenes of terrible destruction. Several villages are completely burried or wiped out by landslides triggered by the quakes. This is a terrible tragedy, and the suffering of the people of Padang is indescribable. See a film of a rescue mission conducted by local relief workers.
What have the IDEP/Bahari rescue team been doing this week?
IDEP/Bahari rescue’s first days involved digging through rubble and confusing and sketchy information about the scope and spread of the disaster area, while immediately getting out to the more remote areas and landslide area many organizations working in the direct Padang area however we found many, many more remote villages that were still to date not receiving any help whatsoever. This is already more than one week since the quakes and landslides happened.
People have no homes, they are sleeping on the side of the roads with whatever goods they were able to salvage from their destroyed homes staked up to provide makeshift shelter. Its cold and there is nothing to eat and many children and other more vulnerable people are becoming ill. Water shortage is also a serious problem at this point.
The IDEP/BAHARI rescue team is split into 2 teams one team is focusing on the search efforts in the landslide areas of Patamuan area and are working with other local search teams in the area burying the deceased to avoid outbreaks of disease, while trying to help people to find their missing loved ones in the rubble and rivers so they can give them a proper burrial. See a film that shows the situation in the areas where the earthquake triggered major landslides that buried several villages.
The second team of IDEP/BAHARI rescue and other fiends from the area are focusing on distribution of urgently needed food and other basic supplies to remote areas that have so far received no assistance whatsoever. The heartbreaking images from the field that we received from the team tell the story of road after road of people waiting with empty boxes , hoping that some help will come to them soon.
Thanks to amazing support from some of you who are helping to make this rapid response work possible, so far the team has been able to return to some of the hardest hit areas that have received absolutely no support to date and distribute rice (half a ton), sugar (250 kg), over 500 duck eggs, 150 boxes of tea, and temporary shelter kits of tarpaulins and rope for families in need. Duck eggs are a great source of high protein content food and the people of Padang believe that they give “special strength” to those that prepare a drink called “the telor” (duck egg tea).
We have posted a slide show of images taken by the IDEP/BAHARI rescue team that show the story of what we have seen over the past week on our facebook page.
The terrain is treacherous. While speaking with the distribution team, who were moving to a new area on a cracking hand phone line to get this update for you, the truck they were driving in hit a major gap in the road and slid down :(. Now they are working on getting it out of the hole and back up and running again, then onto the next village to distribute more support. IDEP is rationing support as best as we can to ensure that as many people as possible who have received no assistance to date can get at least some food.
We also have word from Sam Schultz that the Yayasan Bumi Sehat Team now has a team of a doctor and 2 nurses working to provide much needed support for pregnant women and young babies in the Pariaman area. They have also been doing distribution of baby clothes, blankets, sanitation supplies etc. See the update on their website for more information and how you can support their work.
The KOGAMI team is working hard 24/7 to support clear communications and information flow from the main coordination center in Padang. They are posting regular updates on their website (twice a day) to ensure that what help is available can reach those most in need as effectively as possible, and the local and international efforts continue to coordinate to provide the best assistance we all can.
A consortium of 27 local Indonesian NGOs called 'Koalisi Lumbung Derma' has been formed with about 100 local volunteers on the ground working. Unfortunately they do not have access to any funds or supplies and IDEP urges international organizations and others with supplies that need distribution to contact the coalition on (0751) 7054673 or lumbungderma (a) gmail . com to coordinate efforts with them to get goods delivered to those in need as quickly as possible.
General coordination of efforts is a major challenge. Our team found many blocks in the process of accessing clear information and support from local officials, which is of course hampers the delivery of the urgently needed assistance. This is a common challenge in disaster zone but none the less always very frustrating. See a film of situation in Padang a few days ago.
We sincerely thank the amazing supporters that have made this work to date possible. To Surfer Girl and The Surf Factory Outlet our team wouldn’t have made it there and been able to do this work without your support – Cheers! To Mira and Tanzen and the Bali Buddha team thank you for helping to get some extra team members on the ground to help. And to those of you who have sent your support over the last week through our bank account THANK YOU SO MUCH it has already been converted into food and shelter for people on the ground.
If any of you would like IDEP to keep this effort going please let us know soon as at this point we have been converting every rupiah we receive into immediate support on the ground and have used up all of our available resources to do the work that has happened to date. We’re really sorry that so far we haven’t managed to figure out a solution to the PayPal / on line donations options so for now we are only able to receive donations through our bank accounts, see below. How you can help
Please make your donation through either of these bank accounts:
Bank Name : BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia)
Bank Branch: Cabang Ubud, Bali
Bank Address : Jl.Andong, Tegallalang, Ubud, Bali - Indonesia
SWIFT Code : BNINIDJA DPS
Account Name : Yayasan IDEP
Account No : 0049400253 (Rupiah Donations)
Account No : 0049400264 (US$ Donations) Account Name : Yayasan IDEP Selaras Alam
Bank : Bank Mandiri
Account No : 145-00-0707539-9
Branch : Ubud
Address : Jl. Raya Ubud No.14, Ubud, Bali 80571
Swift Code : BMRIIDJA
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