Around Pundong, Camps Crop up to House the Homeless
2 June 2006
Tent cities spring up around earthquake zone as residents try to find food, shelter, support.
by Paulette Song
On the road leading south from the ancient city of Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java, vibrant green rice paddies create a picturesque landscape. Children with cardboard boxes stand in traffic, asking for help.
“Anything you can give,” they call out in Bahasa, as a throng of mopeds, military trucks, and sport utility vehicles rumble by.
Five days after Saturday’s massive earthquake, more than 130,000 people remain homeless. Clusters of tents are beginning to dot the lush environment around Bantul, a district south of Yogyakarta where rice is the key industry. The groups of shelters are reminiscent of the temporary camps that sprouted in the aftermath of an earlier disaster that hit Indonesia particularly hard—the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Hand-painted signs offer passersby insight into the emotions and needs of local residents in the harrowing days since the quake.
Victims, not Entertainment
‘We are the victims but not the entertainment,’ reads one.
“Seregradi Bantu” says another—Bahasa for “S.O.S.”
In a large open field adjacent to a “posko,” or distribution and information center, Jumiyem, 43, sits in an expansive military-issue tent which the Indonesian army erected. Jumiyem, her husband, and four children, aged 4 to 15, have been staying here since Saturday when the quake toppled their home in Pundong, a sub-district of Bantul. They are not alone: At least one other family shares the shelter with them.
“We don’t ask for food,” says Jumiyem. “We don’t ask for anything. But if you give it to us, we would be grateful.”
Clearly, aid has come to the area in various forms: spring water, ramen noodles, cooking sets. But important basics are missing—a fact an Oxfam assessment team takes note of. Sanitation facilities are very limited: On the field where Jumiyem has set up her temporary home, nearly 200 other people are sleeping in tents, but there is only one latrine and one shower to serve that entire crowd.
On its assessment missions, Oxfam tries to gauge where the greatest needs are so the agency can provide people in those hard-hit areas with clean water, latrines, and emergency shelter.
While many survivors of the quake have chosen to return to their destroyed homes and sleep near them, Jumiyem is reluctant to make that move. She is afraid that a tsunami will strike. For now, she prefers the sense of security she feels with other families camped on the field, even if latrines are in short supply.
“We’re lucky to have one,” says Jumiyem.
