CWS News

Cipayung – Erika Feller, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner – Protection, and Pascale Moreau, Deputy Director of the Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, visited  the Church World Service “Protecting Urban Refugees throught Empowerment” (PURE) project on Thursday, 11 February 2010. They were accompanied by UNHCR Representative for Indonesia and Timor Leste, Manuel Jordão, as well as UNCHR Indonesia staff. The UNHCR delegation visited the refugee center in Cipayung, Bogor, run by CWS to observe activities and talk to the refugees. .

Cipayung. The room is not big, but there’s just enough room for Fariba to let her four children run around with dolls in their hands. However her youngest daughter, a tired and cranky 2-year-old, clings by her side. “Playing here is all they do every day,” said Fariba, who didn’t use her real name for security reasons.

One lesson Indonesians have learned and which Haiti is experiencing too is that earthquakes don’t kill people, but broken buildings and broken infrastructure do. Church World Service understands how natural and human disasters affect individuals and local communities all over the world. We build short- and long-term partnerships to serve people who are often overlooked, often anticipating and responding to natural and human disasters.

Protection means promoting the safety, dignity and fundamental rights of individuals and communities. CWS's work on protection stems from a core commitment to human dignity. For CWS, protection means creating the conditions under which people are empowered and enabled to live safe and dignified lives. It acknowledges that humanitarian and development programs may either increase or decrease peoples' safety and dignity depending on how they are carried out.

The earthquake has changed so many people’s lives in West Sumatra.  They've lost their houses and loved ones. Yusmaida, 43, is one of the earthquake affected people in Pinjauan Village, Sungai Limau Subdistrict, Padang Pariaman District. Before the 7.9 R.S. earthquake hit West Sumatra on 30 September, she lived with her husband and six children as well as a son-in-law and 3 grand children in a small house. She earned her living running a food stall in a nearby school where her husband worked as a gardener. The earthquake took her house and livelihood when it destroyed her house and the food stall. Without her house, she now has to stay in a small transitional shelter with her other family members, without any privacy and risking her family’s health.

A 7.9 R.S. earthquake hit West Sumatra, destroying over one hundred thousand buildings and houses and killing more than one thousand people on September 30. In an emergency setting like this, more human resources are needed to give assistance for evacuation of victims, clearing of debris, food distribution and many other forms of assistance. The Indonesian government, foreign governments, private companies and international and national non-governmental organizations mobilized their resources to help in disaster areas.

Earthquake-affected persons are more likely to have inadequate access to sanitation services and safe water, as well as poor hygiene practices, a combination which promotes sickness through contaminated water. Church World Service thus assists the community to obtain better access to sanitation facilities and safe water.

Two specialists speak as they watch interviews of people on the street regarding HIV and AIDS, elucidating and negating common notions and ideas about HIV and AIDS in “Seen and Heard”, a 5 minute video about HIV and AIDS in Arab culture.

“Safe School, Safe Community” is one of the goals that Church World Service strives to achieve through its Disaster Risk Reduction Program in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. The goal was set to be the theme for International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction or IDDR 2009 that is annually commemorated every second Wednesday of October.

Salmiati was holding Alif, her baby boy, in her arms, peering inside a tent full of children. “He is very curious about what is happening in the tent and he kept asking me to take him here,” said Salmiati.

The tent was big enough to hold 30 children and their mothers, who took part in fun and educational activities or FEAT, an activity that Church World Service has set up to create children friendly space. FEAT aims at addressing the trauma that children experienced following the recent 7.9 R.S. earthquake in West Sumatra.