[Kabar-indonesia] Java Quake Victims Hope for Funds [+JP Op-Ed by UN's Jan Egeland]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: JP: Merapi evacuees [mostly children] suffering from diarrhea;
and JP Op-Ed: Managing aid for humanitarian crises
[by Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General 
for Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator]

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Earthquake victims hoping for funds 

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Bantul

photo: All That Remains: An elderly man stands among a pile of bricks from 
what is left of his house in Barongan hamlet, Sumberagung village, Bantul, 
that collapsed completely in the May 27 earthquake. Some 200 villagers 
died in the quake. (JP/Suherdjoko) 

A fatigued-looking Wagiyem, 44, emerged from the makeshift tent where she 
lives near her earthquake-damaged house in Sumberagung village, Bantul.

Her sweat-soaked face was a testament to the hardships of living in a small 
tent when the temperatures rose. 

"But what else can we do ... My house was damaged by the earthquake on May 
27. My husband has tried to forget the disaster by working as a construction 
worker in Yogyakarta," the mother of two said Tuesday. 

Bricks from the damaged walls of the house have been neatly stacked. Later, 
maybe tomorrow or maybe next month, they will be used to rebuild the house. 

"We are still waiting for the assistance pledged by the government. How much 
help we will get, I don't know. The most important thing is that we need cash 
assistance. As soon as we get it, we will rebuild our house. Living in a tent 
is not comfortable," she said. 

Wagiyem is not alone in that sentiment. Nearly all the residents of 
Sumberagung village are living in tents, after the village was leveled in the quake. 

Of the 2,261 houses in Sumberagung, 1,291 were completely destroyed and 221 
others suffered lighter damage. 

"We've been forced to live like this. We have to accept the hardships because 
this situation will not change this month, it could be much longer," said 
Supanto, one of Wagiyem's neighbors. 

Supanto said the tents were like ovens during the day and refrigerators at 
night. 

Sumberagung village head Subardan said 205 of the village's 14,150 residents 
died in the quake. 

"When the government decided to disburse cash to offset the effects of the 
higher fuel prices, everyone wanted to be classified as poor to get the Rp 
100,000 a month. Now because of the quake, everyone has become poor, including the 
wealthy. We all instantly became poor," said Mugi Wiyono, head of the 
village's welfare services unit. 

Jetis district, were Suberagung is located, suffered the most deaths in the 
quake with more than 900. This figure continues to climb as people die of the 
injuries they sustained in the natural disaster. 

"We just received information that another of our residents died. We feel as 
if we are being tested. We must be strong," said Jupri Sudarmo, the head of 
Sumberagung's administrative unit. 

Village officials have been busy since the disaster inventorying damaged 
houses and processing death certificates. All of the work is being done in a large 
tent provided by the Indonesian Military because the village office was badly 
damaged in the quake. 

"I was working from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Only lately has the work begun to slow 
down so I can rest in the afternoon," village secretary Kuwat Hadi Santoso 
said. 

All village heads have been notified that residents whose homes were 
destroyed in the disaster are entitled to Rp 30 million in reconstruction funds. 

"We have also been informed that an inventory team from the office of public 
works will come around to assess the damage," Subardan said. 

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The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Merapi evacuees suffering from diarrhea 

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Sleman, Yogyakarta

Poor sanitation and unclean drinking water at evacuation centers on the 
slopes of rumbling Mount Merapi has caused dehydration brought about by diarrhea in 
many evacuees, particularly children under five.

Thirteen-month-old Leni Setyati, for example, has been treated at Ngemplak 
Community Health Center over the past week for diarrhea. Leni and her mother 
Ngatini both stay at an evacuation center in Glagaharjo, Sleman. 

"Initially I thought she just had ordinary diarrhea, but it did not stop. The 
baby looked pale and refused to be breast-fed so I rushed her here," Ngatini, 
a resident of Srunen hamlet in Glagaharjo, said. 

Ngatini disclosed that after being treated for nearly one week for diarrhea 
and shortness of breath her baby's condition was improving. 

"Thank God, Leni is getting better. The doctor said her temperature has gone 
down to 37 degrees Celsius from 42 degrees when she was first admitted to the 
health center," said Ngatini. 

Eleven-month-old Risna and 10-month-old Bayu are in a similar condition. The 
two are still being treated in the intensive care unit of the center for 
diarrhea. 

"The diarrhea is possibly caused by a lack of clean water at the evacuation 
center," Risna's mother, Nuryani, said. 

Sri Lestari, one of the doctors at the health center, said the diarrhea of 
the three babies was caused mainly by the poor sanitation at the evacuation 
center. 

"The quality of clean water provided by the local regency administration is 
questionable," she said. 

Besides the three babies the diarrhea outbreak had also affected six adults 
who are being treated at nearby Panti Nugroho hospital in Sleman. 

In order to prevent the diarrheal disease from spreading to other nearby 
centers, Sri Lestari urged the administration to launch a campaign to stress to 
the evacuees the importance of personal hygiene. Health officers at Glagaharjo 
evacuation center describe a bad odor in the evacuation center's compound. 

Data at Sleman regency's natural disaster mitigation command post showed that 
the number of evacuees as of Tuesday had reached 3,902, of whom 899 were 
accommodated at Umbulharjo village hall, 1,571 at SMPN 1 school building and 1,432 
at Glagaharjo village hall. 

Meanwhile, as of Tuesday the volcanic activity of Mt. Merapi was still 
relatively high with hot ash spewing from the crater several times. 

Subandriyo, head of the Mt. Merapi section of the Yogyakarta-based 
Volcanology Technology Research and Development Center (BPPTK), said that from midnight 
to 6 a.m. Tuesday the active volcano spewed large clouds of hot ash 12 times 
reaching a distance of 3.5 kilometers. 

-----------------------------------------

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Op-Ed

Managing aid for humanitarian crises 

Jan Egeland, Jakarta

Indonesia, Somalia, Sudan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia -- all too often, the 
acute suffering of millions of people is ignored or recognized only after death, 
disease and despair have taken a horrific toll. Some crises, like the tsunami, 
galvanize the world's attention. But most crises fall under the shadow of our 
collective neglect, leaving countless families from Asia to Africa and beyond 
without the most basic humanitarian assistance. At a time when the rich world 
has never been larger or more prosperous, our neglect of human suffering 
continues to be as persistent as it is pervasive.

Today, a disaster that is local in origin can quickly become global in 
impact. In a world of instant communication and global trade, the notion of neighbor 
helping neighbor takes on new meaning. But an age-old question remains: What 
should be our response to the suffering of our fellow man? 

The three great Abrahamic faiths, which together claim over half the world's 
population, are united in their response to this question. Muslims and other 
Peoples of the Book all affirm the central precept of responsibility and 
compassion toward the most vulnerable in society. The Abrahamic faiths agree: 
Compassion should have no borders, because suffering carries no passport. 

Humanitarian aid draws directly from this common ethical foundation, 
affirming the inherent dignity of every individual and our shared responsibility to 
assist all those who suffer. Through our work, humanitarians uphold the belief 
that human life has one and the same value, regardless of if whether one lives 
in Jakarta or Jerusalem, Cairo or Calcutta, Banda Aceh or Buenos Aires or 
Boston. 

In a world where 45 million people are either refugees or homeless inside 
their own country, where 12 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, and 800 
million people go to bed hungry each night, the need for humanitarian 
"compassion in action" has never been more urgent. 

We live in an age of paradox. We pride ourselves on technological prowess 
that previous generations could only dream of. In the humanitarian realm, for 
example, we now can deliver teams of aid workers anywhere on the globe in 24 
hours and track refugee movements by satellite. But we have failed to match this 
technical revolution with a more potent and enduring revolution in moral 
consciousness. 

We admire the generosity of most Muslims and Muslim charities. But more than 
90 percent of this is channeled bilaterally, outside of the United Nations 
(UN) and multilateral institutions. Using the UN system would enhance the 
effectiveness of our global institution, and enhance the transparency and visibility 
of Muslim nations' generosity. 

As humanitarians, we operate according to a set of universal principles, 
foremost of which is the principle of impartiality: aid should be provided 
according to need, not creed, nationality, race or any other criteria. Aid workers 
are neutral actors, independent of any state, military or economic interest. 
Over the years, the UN and its humanitarian partners have provided aid in 
emergencies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, assisting millions of suffering civilians 
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Indonesia, Somalia, Bosnia, and 
elsewhere. 

Sadly, we all know that some crises attract a far greater response than 
others. If resources for humanitarian aid were provided impartially according to 
need, then the generosity displayed in the tsunami crisis would be the rule, 
rather than the exception, for how we respond to all emergencies. If the extent 
of need were the sole criterion for action, then thousands of drought-stricken 
families in Somalia would not go hungry this summer, or children in Eritrea 
die for lack of clean water. 

Experience shows that under-funding and neglect is more common than 
magnanimity when it comes to assisting those caught in the cross fires of conflict, or 
suffering from disaster and disease. Indeed, neglect can easily spell 
disaster. 

Funding is not the only measurement of humanitarian neglect, but it is the 
most quantifiable and hence, most commonly used. Over the years, humanitarian 
funding for all crises has remained insufficient relative to both needs on the 
ground and the growing wealth of the growing number of developed nations. 
Funding also varies widely -- independent of need -- across crises and sectors. 
Last year, for example, one out of in every five UN Humanitarian Appeals was less 
than 50 percent funded, with the average Appeal receiving only 66 percent of 
required funding, as has been the case for the last six years. 

When aid agencies are stretched thin for funding, those who are least able to 
afford bear cuts in assistance-- refugees, the sick and malnourished -- pay 
the highest cost, sometimes with their lives. Simply put, the absence of 
sufficient resources translates into lives lost and suffering prolonged for people 
who are among the most vulnerable on the planet. Indeed, the word "neglect" 
only begins to hint at the degree of resource inequity that runs like a fault 
line throughout so much of the humanitarian landscape. Moving toward solutions 

Clearly, we can and must do better. Aid should not be a lottery, but a 
fundamental human right. We must move from lottery to predictability, so that all 
who suffer receive aid according to need, not creed, politics, or media 
attention. 

The UN's newly launched Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for 
humanitarian crises is an important step in this direction. The CERF allocates one-third 
of its resources to core, life-saving activities in new and chronically 
under-funded crises, wherever they occur. In this sense, the CERF is an expression 
of our shared responsibility to serve the world's most vulnerable and 
neglected. Funded by governments [including Kuwait, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Egypt] 
private organizations and individuals, the CERF currently (NOTE: as of 6/16/06) 
has US$261 million in pledges, approximately half of what we seek. The CERF is 
not a magic wand, of course. But it will go a long way to help rectify some 
of the imbalances, which leave millions of people in neglected crises in acute 
need. 

Over the years, faith communities have played a vital role in raising 
awareness and funds for humanitarian efforts. Compassion for the poor, the sick, the 
orphaned and the suffering is a central tenet of all major religions. Groups 
such as Islamic Relief, the Aga Khan Foundation and the Red Crescent Societies, 
along with charities, have conducted essential humanitarian outreach 
throughout the world. 

Together with other faith-based, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), they 
have brought vitally needed assistance to the suffering and forgotten. In 
Sudan, Northern Uganda, Indonesia and elsewhere, faith-based NGOs have served as 
vital partners for UN humanitarian agencies like UNICEF, the UN High 
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Program. 

The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General 
for Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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