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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.