Located in Bangga Village, South Dolo Sub-district, Sigi Regency on Saturday (03/12/22), the inauguration ceremony of the Community Evacuation Centre (PEM) building was held. The inauguration of the PEM was symbolically carried out by Mr Muh. Irwan as the Regent of Sigi and attended by Mr Andreas Subiyono and Prijatmo as representatives of YSI, Representatives of DPRD Kab. Sigi, BPBD Central Sulawesi Province, OPD elements of Sigi Regency, Head of Bangga Village, Bhabinkamtibmas and communities and residents of Bangga Village who also enlivened the event by opening the UMKM Bazaar.
The inauguration of PEM became a momentum of activities and handover that this building will be managed by the community in the future; in addition, the agreement and commitment to foster a sense of ownership of PEM became an important point for all parties. In his remarks, Andreas Subiyono as a representative of YSI emphasised that PEM is part of village mitigation and its existence must be able to be part of community capacity building in disaster, economic and health aspects; in addition, the construction of PEM has also been adjusted to local wisdom and has good construction standards so that it can withstand earthquakes up to 7.0 scalarichter strength. On the same occasion, the Regent of Sigi emphasised that the establishment of PEM buildings is a shared responsibility that must be maintained and managed so that cooperation between cross-stakeholders needs to be maintained; in addition, the Regent emphasised the need for active community participation to keep PEM alive and sustainable with the activities and capacity building carried out. In line with the Regent, Mr. Sarfin Pj Head of Bangga Village mentioned that the PEM building can be a place that can be used not only as an evacuation centre but also as a place for community capacity building by involving the active participation of all elements of the community.
The inauguration ended with a symbolic handover from SHEEP Indonesia to Bangga village and ribbon cutting by Mr. Muh. Irwan as the Regent of Sigi. PEM in Bangga village consists of two main buildings and adapts the Lobo and Tambi model, which is one of the traditional buildings of the Kaili tribe in Central Sulawesi. The use of Lobo and Tambi as a PEM building model was inspired during the earthquake in 2018, which was able to become a shelter and evacuation for the affected community with a strong structure and one of the buildings that could withstand the shocks of the earthquake at that time. The building, which consists of 2 main buildings and an open space, is built on 2520 m² of land and can accommodate up to 390 people during emergency periods and 380 people during normal times; more broadly, when there is no disaster the PEM building can also be used for social activities, disaster literacy centres and critical issue literacy as part of community capacity building.