Disaster preparedness in earthquake affected communities on Lombok

On August 5, 2018, the Indonesian island of Lombok was affected by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9. The aftershock followed on August 9, 2018. The effects of the earthquake have been devastating: North Lombok was the most severely affected by the earthquake with 466 dead and over 1,000 injured. The destruction of around 12,000 buildings left over 80 percent of the population homeless. These events stretched the capacity of government in addressing the needs of disaster-affected communities. Hindering the recovery and rehabilitation of the communities were the lack of efforts on promoting awareness on disaster risk reduction.

AWO International partnered with Yayasan SHEEP Indonesia (YSI)  to increase the capacity of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and villages on community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) – through education, advocacy, and mainstreaming of plans and policis to reduce disaster risk and increase the communities’ resilience. –Under YSI’s supervision, Gravitasi Mataram (Gerakan Revitalisasi Kemanusian), ADBMI Foundation and Perkumpulan Panca Karsa (PPK) implemented information, training and advisory programs in the communities they serve in the districts of North and East Lombok.

This includes the establishment and training of disaster preparedness committees, joint risk analyses of the community members as well as the practice of risk-conscious behavior and the use of modern telecommunications applications. In a particularly affected village, the supply of clean drinking water is ensured by installing household filters. Since March 2020, the focus has also been on specific activities to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. In addition to education, these include the production and distribution of protective material such as hand washing facilities, masks and disinfectants. Representatives of the local administrations are involved in all measures, which also increases their knowledge and strengthens the partnership with the communities in their area of competence.

DRR MAINSTREAMINNG WORKSHOP FOR LOCAL NGOS AND VILLAGE GOVERNMENT AND TRAINING ON DISASTER RISK MAPPING

With education about DRR having been set aside by state actors, the role of NGOs is very vital to integrate DRR into the post disaster recovery activities. A workshop was organized to provide an avenue for NGOs to further enhance their knowledge in disaster management, understand the relevance of mainstreaming DRR into their humanitarian work, and develop action plans or policy plans for integrating DRR into their organizations’ systems.mainstreaming workshop for local NGOs and village government and training on disaster risk mapping  With education about DRR having been set aside by state actors, the role of NGOs is very vital to integrate DRR into the post disaster recovery activities. A workshop was organized to provide an avenue for NGOs to further enhance their knowledge in disaster management, understand the relevance of mainstreaming DRR into their humanitarian work, and develop action plans or policy plans for integrating DRR into their organizations’ systems. A workshop for village government officials was also done. It focused on global and national concepts, and the evolution of DRRM, etc. During this workshop, the villages gathered information on the following: village disaster profile, threats data and risk maps, data on the capacities and vulnerabilities and maps; they also revised and reconstructed their Action Plans. A series of follow up activities were conducted to finalize the maps and Action Plans. It is hoped that the developed outputs from these activities will be integrated in the Village Development Plan. To supplement these two activities, a training on disaster risk mapping was also carried out. 

EDUCATIONAL WORK AT SCHOOLS 

The children's desire to learn face to face encourages the stakeholders to also raise children's and young people's awareness of the pandemic and the threat of earthquakes. In an information and education campaign, the students were taught in a playful and entertaining way about types of catastrophes, concrete rules of behavior in the event of an earthquake, local instruments for early warning and hygiene rules to prevent the transmission of the corona virus. This initiative has also helped to alleviate the trauma that some children have experienced as a result of the earthquake and the pandemic.