Rapid Assessment
Responding the earthquake occurred on September 2, 2009 in West Java, SHEEP Indonesia Foundation sent an assessment team on September 4, 2009 to Garut Distict, which then followed by sending the Health Team on September 7, 2009 for doing emergency response at the disaster prone.
SHEEP´s Health Team installed a tent for doing health service at IDP´s camp in Leuwi Pari Sub Village, part of Sagara Village and Cibalong Sub District. Leuwi Pari people fled to rubber forest which was chosen as most center location of Sagara Village and more accessible for people from other villages.
Sagara Village is located at the southern coast, about 90Km from Garut District (3 hours drive from Garut down town). As a coastal area, Segara is very vulnerable for Tsunami. There is no any dead toll reported in Segara Village, however people prefer to flea as most of their houses were heavily damaged and or collapsed. Those whose fine house also went flea to avoid the risk from possible additional earthquake. Sagara Village consists of 19 Sub Villages and the most damage one is: Bendungan with 27 houses collapsed, 50 houses heavily damaged and 50 houses with light damage. Bendungan Sub District consists of 112 families or about 419 people.
Leuwi Pare Sub Village occupied by 72 families or about 180 people with following details: 25 elderly, 44 under five children, 10 nursing women, and 8 pregnant women. Most of people (70%) work as labor of robber plantation belongs to Persero Terbatas Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VII, and 30% are traditional fishermen. Leuwi Pari Sub Village is established upon watershed, which used to be spawning, so the land is very unstable. Provincial Government and Provincial Assembly had officially declared that area as prohibited area for settlement, which as result, people live there illegally. People had asked the government to relocate them to other area, but it has not been realized. This issue may disturb reconstruction phase post the quake as there is no definite location for relocation, yet.
Health Service of SHEEP Indonesia Foundation
Health Service of SHEEP was aiming at providing health service for survivors at the Leuwi Pari Camp and survivors from other villages. Beside health service in the tent, SHEEP also did mobile clinic at Bendungan Sub Village, part of Sagara and Cibalong Sub District and also in Jatisari Village, part of Cisompet Sub District. In 10 days of service, SHEEP served 719 patients. Some identified health problem was as follow: Upper Respiratory Infection (URI), Myalgia, Gastritis, Dermatitis, and Hypertension. The URI might cause by dirty air as they stay outside from their houses. Beside, dry season also worsen the condition as air become more dusty. Meanwhile some people had been suffering from other health problem before the quake, such as: skin diseases and degenerative problem. Skin diseases might caused by poor hygiene related to the unavailability of clean water, such as: laundry, taking bath, and other daily consumption. Other problem faced by survivors was the distance from their places to the PusKesMas (Government Health Center at Sub District Level), where they should pay more on transportation rather than for the health service itself.
SHEEP Health Team also provided supplementary food feeding, where SHEEP provided the ingredients like milk and green bean and women of the villages cooked and distributed to children.
During the response, SHEEP always coordinated with PusKesMas and Sub District Government in order to avoid overlapped assistance. SHEEP also prioritized area which were not reached by health service yet.
Policy of the Emergency Response
Based on the information of Cibalong Sub District Government, the Provincial Government had declared the period of Emergency Phase, which was 16 days from the earthquake, which ended on September 18, 2009. Meanwhile the Central Government declared that Emergency phase ended at September 16, 2009, then continued with Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Phase. The Central Government commits to cover 80% of the budget need for the rehabilitation and reconstruction, while the District and Municipal covered 20% of the budget. In fact, the damage was not as bad as from the quake happened in Aceh or Jogjakarta. The earthquake in West Java did not destroy people´s working equipments.
Based on SHEEP´s Organization capacity, the existence of many organizations in place and the policy of government toward Emergency Phase Period and its continuation steps, SHEEP decided to only provide Health Service during the Emergency Phase until the 18th of September 2009. However, coordination with local network organization and those with Disaster Response & Preparedness mandate, like Serikat Petani Pasundan (SPP) kept continued in order to carry out possible support from other organization partners for the survivors, in the next phase after the emergency one.
