Notes from the Field

I MOVE TO CARE!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:30:10 GMT

I am so happy to receive an offer of project manager from CARE International in Vietnam. What I am thinking is that I will try my best to do a good work in Quang Nam Province and do the right things to give local people a good impact on their lives. I hope I will learn more about fundraising campaign so that I can get fund for CARE to help people. That's my first thinking now.

Empowering Communities - - from VSL to VITOVU

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:34:14 GMT

When I was "forced" to leave CARE in Tanzania in May 2006, I was somehow confused! That was a "Threat" to my survival - for you who know "SWOT". But I turned things differently. On July 1st 2009 ASMET celebrated her 3rd year supporting and created new "life" for over 450 "Vituo Vya Maendeleo Vya Jamii" - VITOVU (umbilical cord - in Kiswahili). 3/4 of the 450 VITOVU members are women and young people who had lost hope! By July 2009 all were leading assured social and economic lives - many are now supporting 3 to 5 members of their families; including assured 3 meals per day, have sponsored their children to secondry schools and all managing viable small businesses.

How? I applied the CARE Niger MMD community groups methodlogy and CARE Tanzania (HISA or VSL) methodology to create VITOVU groups on pilot basis and now have over 12 VITOVU groups using personal savings, pension funds (32,000/= per month and parttime consultancy jobs. From 2010 we plan to create more VITOVU groups targeting young people in marketing places around Dar es Salaam City. Thanks CARE for empowering me first, I'm no longer confused from loosing my job. I'm now known as "mwalimu -teacher" or "mshauri - advisor" by the community members i work with. Join us to change their lives for the better!

"It is a disaster, no one can be blamed."

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:01:34 GMT

By Wiwik Widyastuti

Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra

It was Wednesday afternoon in the village of Tanjung Alai. Sariani had just finished her prayers and was sitting in the living room watching TV with her five-year-old grandchild, Farisa. It was a regular evening; everything was just fine until the ground started to shake.

Disaster Strikes Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands

A series of natural disasters – including two typhoons, four earthquakes and a tsunami – recently hit Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. These disasters have devastated communities, killed and injured thousands of people and left millions homeless millions due to flooding and destruction.

CARE is on the ground in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, assessing survivors' immediate needs and providing lifesaving aid, including clean water, food and temporary shelter. An estimated $15 million will be needed to provide humanitarian assistance in these hard-hit areas.

“It was shaking as if a big truck had passed by in front our house,” Sariani, 49. As the shaking got stronger she realized it was not a truck, it was an earthquake. “Then, we got up and ran.”

A few seconds later, her house collapsed.

Feeling weak, Sariani lay down on the ground. Everything was spinning. She had lost everything she ever had.

“When I saw my house collapse in front of my eyes, I was so shocked. I could not say a word,” Sariani says in a quiet voice.

(PARIAMAN, WEST SUMATERA, INDONESIA-OCTOBER 6, 2009: Sariani 49 years and her grand daughter stays inside a temporary shelter after her house was badly damaged by earthquake at the village of Kuranji Hulu, Sei Gringging Sub District. CARE is part of a coordinated international effort to bring relief to the estimated 200,000 people affected by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the area on September 30th.CARE is readying jerry cans and water purification kits for distribution, along with blankets, sarongs, hygiene kits, and materials to build community latrines. Photo by CARE/Edy Purnomo)

Sariani’s husband, Jafan, 53, is a motorcycle taxi driver. He was in the market when the earthquake hit. “After the tremor stopped, I rushed back home,” Although grateful that his family is safe and unharmed, seeing the ruins of the house that he built with his own hands was devastating. “I cried seeing my house destroyed – the house that I build by saving penny by penny from my daily income as a motorcycle taxi driver. It was gone.”

The family, like many others, spent the night outside, with sky as their roof, afraid to go inside. Most of the family’s belongings are buried under the ruble. All they could save were some plates, glasses, a cooking jar and a small bed. They are traumatized. Sariani is afraid to even go near the remains of what used to be her house for fear the remaining walls will also collapse.

Jafan can only hope for the best for the family. “It is a disaster, no one can be blamed. What I can do now is work again, harder than before, so I can rebuild the home for my family.”

(PARIAMAN, WEST SUMATERA, INDONESIA-OCTOBER 6, 2009: Jahan, stands in front of his damaged house at the village of Kuranji Hulu, Sei Gringging Sub District. CARE is part of a coordinated international effort to bring relief to the estimated 200,000 people affected by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the area on September 30th.CARE is readying jerry cans and water purification kits for distribution, along with blankets, sarongs, hygiene kits, and materials to build community latrines. Photo by CARE/Edy Purnomo)

"God, I will never forget the sound"

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:52:34 GMT

By Wiwik Widyastuti

Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra

Zaimarti is sitting on the corner of a wooden bench in front of what used to be her home, finishing her lunch – instant noodles with some rice. It’s the same menu she’s had for the past five days, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Disaster Strikes Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands

(Padang, October 6, 2009 - Zamiarti with her two children, 14-year old Fernando, and 6-year old Uci, in front of the ruins of their home. Photo by CARE/Wiwik Widyastuti )

The 42-year-old recalls the day of the quake with horror. “We were in the kitchen and we heard a loud cracking sound. Suddenly, the earth was shaking. I called my children in panic, telling them to go outside. And the sound, God, I will never forget the sound of my floor cracking. After that, water come up from underneath.”

(Grandmother, Marni, 60, Gasan Gadang village, Padang Pariaman. Photo: CARE/Wiwik Widyastuti)

Zaimarti lives with her two children, 14-year old Fernando, and 6-year old Uci, in a modest brick home. Her husband, Chairul Anwar, works as a part-time driver in the city of Padang. With their house located not far from the shores of the Indian Ocean, Marni really fears a tsunami.

(Fernando, 14 years old, Gasan Gadang village, Padang Pariaman. He cannot go to school because his school was destroyed. Photo: CARE/Wiwik Widyastuti)

“Without thinking, we ran to the hill, fearing a tsunami would come and wash all of us away, just like it did in Aceh,” says Marni, Zaimarti’s 60-year-old mother who lives next door.

Zaimarti and her family, along with many neighbours, spent the night in the open air on the hill. When morning arrived, they returned from the hill to their damaged homes.

“It was a horrifying scene, seeing our house destroyed. We even had not yet finished building it, and now it is gone,” says Zaimarti, holding Uci in her arms. Her mother’s house is also destroyed so the big family has no other place to stay. “We do not know what will happen next. My children cannot go to school because the schools are also damaged.”

The earthquake also damaged their well, so there is little access to clean water. “After the earthquake, the well is just empty. All the water is gone – all that is left is sand,” she says. “Not only the well. Our kitchen and bathroom are also destroyed. We take debris from the house and use it for fire wood to cook.”

(Padang, October 6, 2009 - Zamiarti uses debris from her destroyed house as firewood to cook. Photo by CARE/Wiwik Widyastuti)

Zaimarti, her mother and children are now living in tents in front of their house. They are afraid to stay in the ruins of their home, as the building could collapse with only a small shake. Almost all of their belongings are gone. Little could be saved.

“I can not imagine how we can rebuild our house, says Zamiarti. “We barely have money to buy food, let alone rebuild the house. I hope someone will help us.”

"My friends I grew up with are gone."

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:41:12 GMT

by Seki Hirano, CARE shelter advisor
Palu Air, Pariaman District, West Sumatra
October 4, 2009

Disaster Strikes Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands

On September 30, Indra, a 20-year-old student in Padang, West Sumatra, received a desperate phone call from his mother. The island has just been struck with a massive earthquake. Indra left Padang and rushed back to his home in the remote village of Pulo Air. Fortunately, he arrived to find his mother safe. However, he found that half his village, along with two neighboring villages, had completely disappeared under a four-hectare-wide landslide. The edge of the slide had stopped just four metres from his house.

On Sunday, October 4, CARE's emergency response team reached the remains of what used to be the village of Pulo Air, in the earthquake-devastated Pariaman District of West Sumatra. The village had not yet been reached by emergency aid. As CARE's team approached the village, the narrow rural path filled with crowds of weeping people fleeing on foot, in cars and on motorbikes. The team had to dismount their motorbikes and walk the remaining kilometer into the village.

There, I met Indra and spoke to him outside his home. It started to rain heavily and we crouched the palm thatch eaves to talk. Indra would not look at me. He just looked straight forward and replied.

"Just gone," he said. "I cannot believe this. There used to be my school, now you cannot even see a single desk. My friends I grew up with are gone. This village use to be on one level and now there is this 30 foot drop."

Idra said his mother was still completely traumatized. After hearing the deafening thundering of the landslide, she had run outside only to hear sharp screams of "Help! Help!" She was powerless. She could not do anything. Other surviving villagers arrived moments later but were equally helpless.

Local officials estimate 140 people died in the destruction of three villages. There were only 5 survivors, who are currently in hospital. Indra's mother is one of them.

Indra looked on with a bewildered gaze. A medical mask hung from his chin. "I am confused. I hear rumors that we will be relocated as the land now in this area is unsafe. My paddy fields are gone and my house is damaged beyond repair."

I asked what the survivors need the most. Indra replied, "Food, water, clothes, blankets and housing." In other words, most everything that can be replaced.

The remains of Indra’s house in the remote village of Pulo Air,
in the earthquake-devastated Pariaman District of West Sumatra.

Rescue teams begin to clear the landslide that engulfed the
village of Pulo Air and two neighboring villages .

Rescue teams survey the landslide that engulfed the village of Pulo Air and
two other villages in earthquake-devastated West Sumatra.

Everyone is suffering. Everyone is afraid.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:26:17 GMT

by Adjie Fachrurrazi, CARE emergency coordinator in Indonesia
October 5, 2009

It has been raining non-stop for the past six hours. Heavy, heavy rain.

People are traumatized. They are asking for help. Everyone is suffering. People say to me, "Don't count the number of destroyed houses. Count the number of houses still standing. It will be faster." In most villages I have seen, only 15 percent of houses are still standing. Some houses are totally flattened. The roof is flat on the ground. People lost everything. Their houses are destroyed, everything in them is destroyed. And everyone is afraid so those with houses will not go inside. There have been aftershocks over the past few days but today was mostly quiet. Everyone is afraid of another earthquake.

Disaster Strikes Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands

So people are sleeping outside, living outside. We are all wet. They have no shelter. Some people are sleeping under broken pieces of roof. Shelter is the main issue. People also need mosquito nets. They are sleeping outside, and with all this rain, there will be mosquitoes and malaria. Children are already starting to get sick. They need blankets, mosquito nets and plastic sheeting for shelter.

***

People are drinking coconut juice, or river water. People in these village used to get their water from springs, but the pipes are broken. In Padang city, the municipal water is not running yet. The water from the river is not clean, and people don't have stoves to boil water. They need clean drinking water or there is going to be a rise in waterborne illness. We have supplies to help 5,000 people to start, but we need funds to help more.

***

There are many injured people and people still buried under buildings. It is very hard to reach the affected areas. Landslides have blocked roads and there is debris everywhere. Our team went out by motorbike today. We have 20 people on the emergency team, including staff from our local partner. This damage looks worse than the Yogyakarta quake in 2006.

It has been five days now. It's not clear how many people are affected yet. We don't have all the information from the rural areas. There are many dead bodies. And the smell is coming.

Super-typhoon causes fear and panic in Philippines

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:30:13 GMT

by Celso Dulce

Celso Dulce is CARE's Project Representative in the Philippines, and he is leading CARE's emergency response to Typhoon Ketsana in Manila. Celso is from Manila.

It started to rain a few hours ago, and it's dark. Today we were supporting the government order to evacuate people from high-risk areas as a precautionary measure. I just returned from securing the warehouses for relief distribution, because the goods might be damaged. Another storm is coming. We don't know how bad, but the rain is getting harder.

Some areas are still flooded. In some areas, we don't know why, the water started to rise again yesterday. Some areas are still hard to reach. With the oncoming typhoon, definitely we will see the floodwaters rising again. So people who returned to their homes, but they will have to go back to the evacuation centers or whatever safe place they have identified. This is very difficult, because people were just starting to clean their houses and now they have to leave again. Almost 300 people are dead. This is my city. I have never seen it like this.

They call the new storm a 'super-typhoon', and people are becoming panicked. Just this afternoon, we received an SMS saying that the super-typhoon will hit by 9 p.m. tonight. Then we received another SMS saying it will hit Manila by 5 p.m. It creates a lot of fear and panic.

We need to teach people what to do to prepare for the coming super-typhoon. They need to move to a safer ground. They shouldn't wait for the strong winds and floods, that will be too late. They have to follow government warnings. Survival steps, prepare water, prepare food that will cover for one or two days. The electricity company has already said there will be cut off in electricity. There is a high level of awareness, and the government units are doing their best to prepare. I hope there are no deaths this time.

The biggest need right now is for food, safe water and emergency shelter, especially since it's raining again. People had been sent back home, because the schools were being used as shelters. Children have to go back to school. Classes had been cancelled for a week already. But now we will need emergency shelter again, mainly tarpaulins. Families have yet to rebuild their homes.
The urban poor are the worst affected. They live in housing made of salvaged material, plywood from the garbage dump, tarpaulin, sheets of advertising paper – flimsy shelters, and it's very easy for strong winds to destroy them. I was really shocked.

Two days ago I visited one area. One family had a shelter barely larger than two metres by two metres made of salvaged material. As many as 10-14 people lived in this. They have to take turns sleeping, some during the night, some during the day. And then they were hit by the typhoon. For me, it was so depressing, because even before the disaster they were living in such a horrible condition, and the floods made it worse.

The urban poor eat only twice a day, and have very poor quality food, maybe just plain rice and soy sauce. At times, they scavenge food from the garbage, but they can't now, because everything is contaminated by the flood.

CARE is distributing drinking water and food that will last them for a week. We are also distributing emergency supplies like blankets, jerry cans to store water and plastic tarpaulins.

One man said, we need assistance, my wife is sick. She was doing the cleaning after the floods, because a lot of mud and debris were in the households. It is the responsibility of the women to take care of the children and clean the house. They have to get food and take care of the children, and the children are getting sick. The requests for medical assistance is increasing.

It has been a long week. I think of those families tonight. I watch the news and the path of the new typhoon. The rain is getting harder.

A Black City: Eyewitness Report from the Disaster Zone in Indonesia

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:21:23 GMT

Oct. 1, 2009
At 9:00 pm local time, on Thursday, October 1, CARE worker Bahtra Tarigan arrived at the airport in Padang on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia with the rest of the CARE emergency response team. There is no power and no functional communications. By texting on his cell phone, Bahtra has been able to send short updates to the outside world about what he is seeing in the earthquake-devastated city. Information in italics was added for clarity; all other text is verbatim from Bahtra's text messages.

Typhoon Ketsana; The poorest will suffer the most

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:12:24 GMT

By Lisa Ognjanovic of CARE Laos

As we waited for Typhoon Ketsana to hit, our first priority was the safety of our staff. Any at risk were immediately called back and commonsense things like closing windows and doors, making sure we had enough drinking water and ensuring that our staff prepared their own houses were done so we were ready to concentrate on people’s needs as soon as the storm passed.

Yesterday morning the team in Sekong, where the Typhoon hit hardest, sent through pictures of how high the river had come. It really hit home what kind of disaster the villages CARE works with along the river have experienced; they tell us the river rose from 7 metres to 28 metres high. We are still to get access to many of those villages so the extent of the damage and human impact remains unclear.

I have been in storms in Laos before where rooftops have been blown away and trees uprooted, but this storm was far worse than what we have ever seen. I can only imagine what impact a storm of this size may have on these poor communities.

We have heard unconfirmed reports of people seeing houses washing down rivers. Houses in Laos along the river are constructed out of bamboo and wood and would not have been able to withstand a storm of this size – the homes of the poorest people are even flimsier. As always, those who are already so vulnerable will suffer the most in this emergency.

Today as news of the damage and the need start to trickle in, we are well and truly beginning our response. While we wait for the formal assessment we are preparing to reach very remote locations, procuring water purification tablets that will be essential to be able to provide clean water, finding out where we can get large quantities of rice.

I have seen on CNN and BBC reports of the Typhoon hitting Vietnam and Cambodia, but it has hit us here in Laos as well and hit us hard. The remoteness of the country means information is slow to emerge but we know that many people are going to need our assistance; now and well into the future.

The worst typhoon in decades comes to Vietnam

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:36 GMT

By Peter Newsum, Country Director, CARE Vietnam

Sept. 30, 2009

Typhoon Ketsana, which caused such horrific damages in the Philippines, has now hit Vietnam. It is officially the worst typhoon that some areas of Vietnam has seen in decades.

As it slammed through the small island nation of the Philippines, we in Vietnam braced for what we knew would soon hit our coastlines.

Now it has hit and for the moment we are preparing for the very worst.

There are many different things rushing through my mind; most of it is hope for the people who have been affected and largely I’m hoping for very few casualties and little suffering, however I realise that reality might be different.

I know the Vietnamese government has done a tremendous job preparing for the storm. They’ve been tracking the storm for several days, evacuating people from high-risk areas, closing schools and taking necessary precautions to keep casualties as low as possible.

But we also have to be realistic. Typhoon Ketsana’s strength was overwhelming, bringing storms and rains. The storms created devastation and the rains caused significant flooding. So now, we are banding together and mounting an effort to ensure a rapid and effective emergency response.

As always, getting information in these initial stages of a disaster is very difficult. Phone lines are down, roads are flooded and communication channels are blocked. In the face of these many challenges we’re doing our best to pull together a quick response.

In the meantime, while we cannot tell the scale of what we are about to face, we are getting ready to help those in need as best we can. We have arranged to purchase supplies and staff are deploying to go into the disaster zone, all while receiving new information and updating our teams.

Although we are yet to realise the full extent of the damage Ketsana has caused and the potential catastrophe that awaits us, we know from experience what the immediate needs of people and their communities will be and as we gain momentum for the response.

Clean water, food, emergency supplies, water containers, clothes, and kitchen utensils to name just a few are our greatest priority.