Doctors preparing for the day

Each day lists are made of patients that will need help that day. Work carries on day and night and each morning receipts of medicines that will be given out are prepared.

Godeliva Sari's photo journal - Friday 2nd June

A little boy playing with sand and used mineral water bottles in front of his home in the village of Bicak, (in the sub-district of Brangkal and district of Klaten)









the 'kitchen' in Sari's mother's house in Samirono. This is where all of the cooking is happening now - before the post is constructed in the village








Medical supplies bought from donations. This was taken as Dr. Agus's team were preparing to go to the field.





Only a stained carpet is left in this house in the small hamlet of Ngunut, in the village of Bicak, sub district Brangkal, and district of Klaten.




Sari is now acting more as a guide for Kerabat Klinik Kota Yogyakarta in the Klaten area - as she knows the villages well. She will be taking a group of Klinik KKY volunteers from Jakarta to deploy to Kragilan and Brangkal village tomorrow. What used to be Sari's grandmother's house will begin to be cleared tomorrow to build a shelter for the children in the village, Klinik KKY and SGN will work to keep the children happy so the grown-ups can concentrate on cleaning their home plots. Also on the same land a Shelter will be constructed for a public kitchen to ensure people are well fed.

This small project will need many things, especially books, toys, paper to draw on, colored pencils, blankets. A Jakarta based organization Yayasan Bumi Kita (Our Earth Foundation) has agreed to provide a diesel electricity generator for the shelters.

Lamenting her house - this old lady has nothing left from the earth quake (Bicak, Brangkal, Klaten)

THANKYOU SARI

For those of you who have tuned in to the efforts of the Klinik Karabat Kota Yogyakarata, I also want to highlight the work that is being carried out by Godeliva D. Sari (Sari), co-ordinator of Subur Gemi Nastiti, a small community development organisation from Sekaralas in the district of Ngawi, East Java.

I am sure over time we will hear alot more from Sari and hopefully be able to receive more photographs to go with the articles.

Sari, we thankyou so much for what you are doing, we are using your information to pass on to news here and it is helping us remind people of why they should be donating to this appeal.

THANKYOU

I want to highlight some words that have already been placed in this blog for any newcomers that read this blog -

"Sari writes that she became involved when she heard of the destruction of almost all the homes in the villages of Becak, Ngunut and Brangkel in the district of Wedhi, Klaten, where many of her family live. Homes of her grandparents and uncle were destroyed, and 2 of her family were killed, while others are still missing. ".

On top of writing articles and taking photographs to send to us, she is manning soup kitchens, delivering much needed items to remote areas and what ever else she can do to help.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS KEEP SENDING FUNDS TO HELP


Stanna

First Money Transfer

I am very happy to announce that the first transfer of funds from our fundraising efforts has been telegraphed this morning - an amount of $2630.00.

I will try and get the story from the Armidale Express put here on the blog as soon as possible.

I also had a bit of a chat with J. Morrow, Armidale's Spruiker on Community Radio yesterday. He had a full schedule prior to my speaking with him and he was very kind to sqeeze us in - and he gave us a nice amount of time to explain what we were doing.

I rang The Chronicle yesterday in Toowoomba and they were keen to help pass on the word that we are raising funds for the Klinik Kerabat Kota and helpers. My parents live in Toowoomba and my mum is helping with fundraising from there. The Chronicle has just been to them for a photo and story and I will find out when it runs and try and put it here on the blog.

Some of the media here have said that they would appreciate photographs relating to our stories.

I am meeting with the local council next week on Wednesday at 5.30 to present our plea and will see how we go.

Kris and I are putting a little newsletter together - I ran out of black ink - so I then rang Evans Printing here in Armidale and asked if they could help me with the printing. We will print 100, A3 folded once to an A4 in black and white and pass on to St George in Armidale to give to people who donate here. Evans Printing has offered to print the first two batches for free and I offered in return that we put their name and sponsorship on the bottom of the newsletter.

I will also email the newsletter to anyone who wishes to have it to pass on.

Stanna

Help from the Samdhana Institute

The Samdhana Institute, with its established system ofgood governance and due diligence will directly link with Klinik Kerabat Kota Yogyakarta and provide assurance that the money we collect from our family and friends here in Australia reaches the people who need it on the ground.

This assistance from Samdhana is very valuable to our efforts here in Australia. They are our conduit to Klinik Kerabat Kota (Tami and Dr Agus) and Subur Gemi Nastiti (Sari), who are presently not in a position to be able to do paperwork as they are out working in the field until late each night.

The Samdhana Institute is a non-profit organisation established by senior conservationists and community development practitioners to:

• offer opportunities as well as support forindividuals and groups to remove themselves from theirimmediate environment and reflect upon and communicatetheir experience and ideas;
• enhance and enrich understanding of innovativeapproaches to sustainable resource management andbroaden options for local communities;
• support efforts to increase understanding,development and implementation of appropriate methodsfor conflict management and mediation, with a focus onconflict over access to and management of naturalresources;
• provide conflict mediation services which prioritizedirect engagement as well as mediation training;
• facilitate individual, inter-group and communitylearning and skills sharing; and
• provide small grants for community members, groups,their partners and support organizations to implementkey activities related to these purposes.

Samdhana Institute is also the Southeast Asia Global Alliance Fund partner of the Global Greengrantsnetwork. The GGF Southeast Asia Advisory Board nowmerges with Samdhana to provide support to partners inPhilippines, Indonesia, East Timor as well as theMekong region. It provides small grants to fund grassroots initiatives up to approximately $5000 US.

Photos From Kragilan Village Klaten District

Sari has many photos, but mostly gets back to the city too late each night to get to the internet facilities in town. She also has the problem of slow internet connection. She managed to send two photos yesterday morning of the Kragilan Village. Here you can see the total devastation. The old man in the second picture is trying to clean up, people have begun to try and do this themselves.

Sari reporting from Yogya & Klaten -31st May

Here is Sari's report - slightly condensed - translated by Ann Pryosusilo.

After the devastating earthquake on 27 May in the Yogyakarta area, friends from Klinik Kerabat Kota and the Non-Government Organisation Dian Desa quickly organised distribution of ready-to-eat food, as in this crisis situation government aid was difficult to access. Relief is coordinated by Priali Utami (Tami), a community development worker with Dian Desa Yogyakarta, focusing on the villages of Delingo, Karang Semut and Dusun Dukuh, all in the Imogiri administrative area of Yogyakarta. Delingo has been hardest to reach, accessible only via a steep winding road. Government medical help reached it only yesterday (30 May).

These 3 villages in the Imogiri area have been devastated, with 80% -90% of buildings destroyed. People are sheltering under flimsy makeshift tents. In addition to ready-to-eat food, Dian Desa is helping to provide basic essentials -rice, sugar, oil,tea, soap, instant noodles, water, tarpaulins and hygiene kits. Folding matresses, blankets, and kerosene lamps have just been obtained and will be distributed. The scarcity of food has made people anxious about their belongings, and there have been several reports of theft.

In addition to distributing supplies, Dian Desa has been working with Klinik Kerabat Kota whose coordinator, Dr Agus Ramli immediately after the quake organised emergency medical aid, and has acted as overall relief coordinator. He has been busy enlisting support from other doctors, both within and outside of Yogyakarta. Dian Desa and Klinik Kerabat Kota cover the same districts of Yogyakarta in co-operation with Catholic RElief Services and UNICEF. In this crisis they have been using their personal funds and donations from friends. Yesterday evening a
group of doctors from Jakarta joined them.

Today they have been joined by Godeliva D. Sari (Sari), co-ordinator of Subur Gemi Nastiti, a small community development organisation from Sekaralas in the district of Ngawi, East Java, and have begun to provide medical assistance and food to the Klaten area, the second most devestated region after Bantul. Here 1800 people died, and thousands are injured. Aid will now be able to be extended to this area so that many villages, such as Kragilan where all homes were totally destroyed, will not have to wait for government aid which has been concentrated in the city of Yogyakarta.

Sari writes that she became involved when she heard of the destruction of almost all the homes in the villages of Becak, Ngunut and Brangkel in the district of Wedhi, Klaten, where many of her family live. Homes of her grandparents and uncle were destroyed, and 2 of her family were killed, while others are still missing. She travelled to Yogyakarta by bus, taking 100Kg. of rice. In cooperation with Dian Desa half of this was immediately cooked and distributed in the Imogiri area, the remainder to be distributed with other supplies.

Sari reports:' Yesterday (30May) we tried to reach several villages in the Wedhi and Gantiwarno administrative districts of Klaten. Exact information is hard to come by because the government requires village officials to report and request aid in person. So people who have the information are hard to meet.

In the absence of government aid, to date all assistance has been from private donors. In addition to setting up a distribution centre, we will act as a bridge for people who want to donate directly and will continue to provide up -to-date information. We are setting up a network with people who can be relied upon to channel donations.

Yesterday we visited five villages in 2 administrative areas of Klaten, and met with people recommended by their communities to act as coordinators. We saw people all along the way , holding out boxes, buckets, requesting help from every vehicle which passed. In two of the villages there is not a building left standing. People are now wanting to return after spending days in the open.

At Kragilan a bridge was destroyed, cutting it off from its neighbours. Up till now, aid which should have been delivered has been intercepted by other victims along the road. According to one official, Of the hundreds of people in this village, thirty have returned to start cleaning up the debris of their homes. One old woman, Nenek Rukiyem, was collecting stones. Her husband and child were killed and she does not know the whereabouts of her 4 grandchildren. "I followed the ambulance, but I do not know where my grandchildren are," she said.

In these villages around Klaten people are living in the open under makeshift tents, sleeping on plastic or old rice sacks. It is wet, and there are lots of mosquitos. Numbers of children are suffering from respiratory ailments.

In one part of Kragilan, of about 60 people, 20 were killed, and many suffered various degrees of injury. Many commented on the force of the quake. Instead of a slight rocking from side to side or to and fro, this one was like an explosion from the foundations of the earth, as if the earth wanted to toss everything on its surface up into the air. Homes were pushed upwards, then collapsed. Buildings are sticking up in the air, as if they have been pulled up by the roots.

These people say that tarpaulins, mats, lighting (e.g. hurricane lamps), kerosene and medicines are what they need most urgently.