In Focus

The air was stifling hot inside the 12 square-meter, blue tarpaulin temporary shelter, the new home for six brothers and sisters who survived the West Sumatra earthquake in Pinjauwan Tinggi village. The woman of the house is Junita, 16 years old.

“When the earthquake hit, I quickly carried Fahri, my baby brother and rushed out of our house with my four other siblings.” She glanced at them, gathering near her inside the temporary shelter “The second we stepped our feet outside, our house crumbled to the ground. We were bewildered and shocked.”

Their parents were attending a marriage ceremony in the neighborhood. They all survived and headed straight back home. The family of eight then sought refuge in a small mosque next to a nearby school.

All 70 households living in Pinjauwan Tinggi survived the magnitude-7.9 earthquake and have managed to live in the small mosque sustained by donated rice and oil. Most of them only had the clothes on therir backs. When the rumbling has ended, they started to salvage any goods from remnants of their house. Junita and her family were able to get some more clothes and shared cooking utensils with the neighbors. 

“I’m happy with the temporary shelter but I’m still afraid to stay inside for a long time.” She said shyly. 

Pinjauwan Tinggi village has 47 houses with 70 households. Although the houses are sparsely located, most of them were brought down by the earthquake. CWS distributed 47 temporary shelters and other non-food items in this area, as well as installing a pillow tank to hold 5,000 liters of potable water.

Four of Six siblings, earthquake survivors
(Four of Six siblings, earthquake survivors)