Life is Healthy

More than 300 people in Kebon Singkong, East Jakarta lost their homes in fire (Photo JG/Afriadi Hikmal)

A blaze in Kebon Singkong, East Jakarta, razed 380 houses to the ground and left 2,410 people homeless.

The blaze, which started at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, was extinguished at midnight. The fire reportedly started after a resident left boiling water unattended on a kerosene stove.

Rudy, a resident in the area, was injured while he was trying to put out the fire on his roof. He suffered from a bone fracture and is currently hospitalized at the Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta.

Titi, another resident, said that when the firefighters arrived, it was already too late.

"I could not save anything from my house because the fire spread very quickly," the mother of four told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. "Now I don't have anything and I don't know what to do," she said, adding that her 8-year-old son is sick.

Asep Syarifuddin, deputy mayor of East Jakarta, that the the victims have been receiving aid since early Wednesday. "We have set up two shelter tents for them and two public kitchens," he said.

Aid from the Indonesian Red Crescent (PMI), the city's social agency, health agency, and the Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), have also started to come in. "We have also set up a health post because we have many children here and they may get sick easily," Asep added.

Salim Segaf Al Jufri, minister of social affairs, visited the victims at the shelter and gave Rp 100 million ($11,000) to the East Jakarta municipal government.

"The money will be used to buy food and basic needs," Salim said. "This is enough for two days and we are going to give more aid if needed." Salim added that they are looking at the possibility of helping the victims rebuild their homes.

“We have to sit down and talk about it first, it takes inter-department discussions," he said.

“During the campaign season, they all work. But when the campaign season is over and done with, they disappear, one by one,” said Kalla, chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

Speaking from the resort island of Bali, Kalla said that Red Cross staff members and volunteers had to be in a state of constant readiness to allow them to respond quickly to disasters.

“Don’t just wait in your offices. It would be far better if you went out and set up blood donation posts in malls or office buildings,” Kalla said.

The former Golkar Party chairman was speaking after the PMI announced on Wednesday that it planned to open between 125 and 150 blood donation centers in shopping malls and on university campuses by June this year.

“ This year, the PMI plans to collect three million bags of blood and four million next year,” Kalla said on Wednesday.

He also said the PMI would provide a blood delivery service to hospitals, and added that the organization would build a plant to manufacture blood bags domestically rather than importing them.

On Saturday, Kalla asked the public to support the PMI to help it meet its blood donation targets.

“Our organization’s work is linked to the public,” Kalla said. “When a disaster occurs, the public helps through blood donations. The need for blood during a disaster is also a public need.”

He praised the PMI office in Bali for its well-equipped emergency facilities and the expertise of its employees and volunteers. Kalla reminded PMI workers on the island always to be on the alert because Bali’s reputation as one of the world’s top travel destinations put it in the global spotlight.

“No matter how small the disaster, if it occurs in Bali, news will reach all corners of the globe,” Kalla said.

I Gusti Lanang Made Rudiartha, the director of Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, said PMI’s Bali office had trouble funding its operations because of its reliance on the provincial budget. He said foreign donations poured in after the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, but most of this money had since dried up.

Kalla asked businesspeople across the country to provide financial assistance to the PMI so the organization could continue to carry out its work.

“In times of disaster, lots of businesspeople provide help, but this is not the case during normal periods,” he said.

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Another disaster: Rescuers evacuate the body of a landslide victim from the ruins of buildings in Ciwidey district, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday. Days of heavy rain prompted the landslide Tuesday afternoon at the mountainous tea plantation, killing over a dozen people and destroying scores of homes. AP/Irwin Fedriansyah

Tempo Interactive, Thursday, 28 January, 2010 | 15:08 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Coordinating Department for People’s Welfare will establish an SMS center.

The Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono said that the SMS Center will receive people’s complaints, starting from problems relating to the distribution of rice for the poor, plague, natural disaster up to human trading.

“In the future, foreign aid would no longer be the one coming earlier during disasters,” Agung said in Jakarta yesterday.

Therefore, he said, government performance in handling people’s problem will be more swift and responsive.

”The SMS center should operate this month,” he said.

FEBRIYAN