Trip to Jogjakarta

After my visit to Aceh, I began another journey to Jogjakarta, a place recently hit by an earthquake. The earthquaked claimed thousands of lives and wounded ten thousands more.

I visited Jogjakarta with my husband Arif and my son Akmal. They came because we also planned to visit my husband's extended family, who live in Klaten. Their houses were shaken by the earthquake. One of his distant family suffered a back injury that paralized her.

We began our journey by visiting a Junior High School in Bantul, a place most hardly hit by the earthquake. Dompet Dhuafa, Hope 4 Our Children's local partner in Aceh project, accompanied us. Dompet Dhuafa is a local organization that has allocated about Rp 3 billion (or about $300,000) for victims' basic needs in eight locations in Jogjakarta. According to one Dompet Dhuafa's representative, Arif Abdulllah, most of the victims' basic needs have been provided by donation from both international and local donors (as well as from the government). They still need help in the recovery process. One of the efforts done by Dompet Dhuafa is providing tents as temporary classroom in SMP Bambanglipuro (Bambanglipuro HS). They were meeting with the principal, teachers as well as the head of Kampong (village) who informed the students'data and copies of their ID cards.

It was fortunate that the earthquake did not happen during school hours, one of the teachers stated. Otherwise there would have been more victims.

The ceilings in classrooms were completely destroyed; some of them are covered with glass, now scattered all over the place.

Photo destruction in a classroom in Bantul