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Indonesia

Indonesia: Trócaire arrives in Padang in response to quake

Trócaire staff members are joining partner organisations this weekend in Padang in Western Sumatra to begin working with people affected by the two recent earthquakes.

The city's main airport has reopened and aid is beginning to arrive to help the thousands of survivors whose homes have been devastated by the disasters. It's now a race against time to pull possible survivors out from the massive piles of rubble that resulted when some 50 per cent of the buildings collapsed in Padang. Heavy lifting equipment and medical assistance are urgently required as heavy rain means landslides become a greater risk.

Trócaire will begin working to provide survivors with shelter from the rain, food, clean water - the water supplies have been damaged so people need water purification tablets - and cooking utensils. The electricity supply has been wiped out; road and bridges are damaged and phone lines and internet access are down. Once immediate needs are met we will begin to work with people who have been traumatised by the disaster to offer counseling and support.

Authorities now fear that many towns and villages around Padang may have been badly affected by the quakes but no one has been able to reach them yet. A local priest in Padang, Fr. Agustinus Mudjihartono, said that the town of Pariaman, where 80,000 people live, has been totally destroyed.

Trócaire is part of a worldwide confederation of Catholic development agencies called Caritas. That means we are well placed to react quickly through our partners on the ground. We will concentrate in the coming days on areas around Padang that have been hit. We are talking to the Irish government about getting supplies we need sent quickly through their rapid response mechanism.

Trócaire has been working in this country since before the Indian Ocean tsunami almost five years ago that devastated large parts of the coast here and killed over 130,000 Indonesians. Sumatra lies close to the geological fault line that triggered that 2004 Asian Tsunami.

Indonesia struggles with natural disasters, poverty and foreign debt. 52.4 % of Indonesians, representing over 115 million people, are living on less than US $ 2 per day and the government has little money to spend on social programs to assist them. We have pledged €250,000 to the rescue and recovery work in Indonesia and are appealing to the public to support us.

Meanwhile, we are also working on other natural disasters throughout Asia, such as the typhoon in the Phillippines, where bad weather continues and thousands of people have seen their lives literally washed away.