LOCAL ARMIDALE AND TOOWOOMBA MEDIA SUPPORT KERABAT-EARTHQUAKE APPEAL

We have had wonderful support from the local media in Armidale and Toowoomba.
We would like to thank them in supporting the Kerabat Earthquake Appeal.

The Armidale Express who have run a story and photograph.

In Toowoomba - The Chronicle who have also run a story and photograph.

Armidale Community Radio for their live interview and promotion of the appeal.

Radio 2AD for their live interview and promotion of the appeal.

There are also many in the community who are lobbying for support via their email databases, and morning teas for fund raising.

To-date the community has raised over $3000.00!!
Well done and thank-you to everyone for keeping the momentum!!

Local volunteers rally to help ...

Sari (in the middle) is sorting out donations to distribute with volunteers from Mitsubishi Kuda Club from Jakarta.

Reporting on Saturday night, Sari writes (translated by Chandra):

On Saturday morning after driving for ten hours from Jakarta, volunteers from Mitsubishi Kuda Club Jakarta arrived bringing logistic support in the form of food, milk, lamps, tarpauline, and clothes for earthquake victims. They asked me (Sari) to help them in distributing this help directly to victims in Bicak and Ngunut hamlets, Brangkal village in Klaten. They immediately got to work to begin classifying and accounting the donations they would be handing out, checking that they were divided into equal packets.

After breakfast, we delivered these donations to the ‘help post’ in the village, the volunteers where cheerfull and did not seem tired even after their overnight drive from Jakarta. Some of them ventured out to visit the village people in their tents.

On this same day donations from a Bali based handicraft company Novica, arrived with milk, food, lamps, medicines, tarpauline and cloths. Some of them worked to deliver this aid directly to the people, but some were stocked at the SGN ‘help post’.

We now have five pieces of tarpauline that we are planning to use to build our public kitchen and a space for children to play. I hope we manage to build these places ASAP, so we can ensure the community gets well-nourished food, and the children will have a nicer place to play, learn things and get foods to boost their nutritional intake. The ‘play’ area will also serve as a meeting and planning area for the community

DR AGUS REPORT OVER THE PHONE FOR THOSE IN AUSTRALIA

This morning (June 4, 2006), I received a call from Dr. Agus from Klinik Kerabat Kota Yogja (KKKY), in which he reports what they have been doing with donation’s coming from friends, family and the public in general. Up until now they have been using these donations to do their emergency work related to the Yogja earthquake. But he was happy to report that the Samdhana Institute had sent around 17 million rupiah – this money had been received as a transfer from Krisno Pryosusilo on behalf of the "KERABAT-THE YOGYAKARTA EARTHQUAKE APPEAL" being run from Armidale, NSW, Australia. He says this money is a great help and will make it easier for KKKY and its partners on the gound to deliver aid more effectively. He also promises to give me interviews on progress. He does apologise for not being able to write and post his updates himself, but he says - he is out until midnight lately and can not manage to do this himself. He informed me that KKKY is also receiving donations from other people as well, and they will provide a transparent financial report in the future.

The KKKY was founded in 1998 by two medical doctors and two dentists, who were involved in a local program run by a local NGO Dian Desa named CIUD (Community Involvement in Urban Development). These doctors and dentists, together with Yayasan Humana (a local NGO working with street children) and Yayasan Indriyanati (a local NGO working with female street children), ran a three day camp for the street children to find out what were their most pressing needs. This camp was made possible with funding and logistical support from the Dian Desa CIUD program. After the camp Yayasan Humana, Yayasan Indriyanati, and the four doctors decided to set up KKKY. The start up funding came from the three above organizations and donations from the four doctors and friends.

Why KKKY?
During the three day camp it became obvious that street children in Yogja were not able to access public or private hospitals or clinics because non of them had identification cards and were not recognized by the government. Through KKKY, the two medical doctors and dentists, mobilized other doctors and medical students from the Gadjah Mada University to provide health services to street children. They ran a clinic, in Pajeksan street, a small street off Malioboro road (the main street in Yogjakarta) three days a week, three other days would be spent running a mobile clinic, bringing services to ‘hot-spot’ areas where there was a consentration of street kids. This service still continues to run up until now.

There has been a lot of progress in terms of government and established medical institutions in the city’s recognition of street kids and their needs due to KKKY activities. They have lobbied Rumah Sakit Panti Rapih – to accept street kids when they come for treatment at reduced costs (the bill is paid by KKKY). And last year the Social Department in Yogjakarta covered the treatment of two street kids who were found to have HIV/AIDS in the Sardjito General Hospital.

For the last two weeks, because of the earthquake, KKKY has used its mobile units to service distant villages, not immediately reached by the government. The intentionally choose to service areas that are not receiving spotlight attention from the authorities and the media. Today for example, Dr. Agus is lobbying for a donation of ‘export containers’ fixed up as mobile units with a capacity of 8 beds to be placed in Gantiwarno, Klaten where the ‘Puskesmas’ (public medical clinic) only remains as a pile of rubble, and Dr. Cahyono who is running it is in desperate need to be able to take in some of his worst patients – so that they do not get rained on every night. KKKY has been working in collaboration with Subur Gemi Nastiti (SGN) a small community group from East Java - to deliver aid to the Klaten area.

For the last two years KKKY has been receiving a significant amount of its financial resources from Oxfam-Novib, through a consortium named “Basic Social Services For Needy Children”. KKKY is responsible for the delivery of health services to disadvantaged children in Yogjakarta, Sragen and Boyolali (both of the later are districts in Central Java).

Godeliva Sari's Photo Journal - June 4, Sunday

Teenage boy and his two small brothers are trying to salvage some terracotta roofing tiles from what used to be their home.



This old man has come down with an Asthma attack in the aftermath of the earthquake. He lost his home.



This old lady finds a little comfort in telling her story of how she was saved. She lost her husband and son in the earthquake and does not know where her four grandchildren are. We are trying to help her trace them.



People are living in their compounds that are humid from the nightly rain and swarming with mosquitos.

INFO ON KLINIK KERABAT KOTA

If you would like to know about the Klinik Kerabat Kota Yogyakart please click on this link to an article found on the internet. http://www.serve.com/inside/edit75/p10trisnadi.html

Hard at work at the Klinik Kerabat Kota Yogyakarta

The range of treatments required in a day are huge, the doctors and their assistants and helpers are pushing the boundaries to do what is needed to help the earthquake victims and their families.
Photographs supplied by Godeliva Sari