Czech charities take part in rescue efforts in Sumatra

Humanitarian workers from around the world are rushing to Western Sumatra where Wednesday’s earthquake has left over a thousand people dead and likely several thousand more trapped beneath the rubble. Among those involved in the relief effort are Czech charity workers based in Aceh, northern Sumatra, where they have been working throughout the numerous disasters that have afflicted the island since 2005.

Half of the Sumatran cities Padang and Pariaman have been destroyed, people are still being pulled out of collapsed schools, hospitals and businesses more than forty hours after being trapped there by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake. On Wednesday, the Czech mission of Caritas Internationalis sent a team of experts to investigate the situation, and the head of the mission, Martin Váně, who is currently in Aceh, says a rescue team will now follow.

Photo: CTK

“There is now a team of approximately 20 to 25 people, ready to head out for Padang today. The main thing is still helping to get the people from the ruins, because hundreds of buildings collapsed at the site. The second thing is that our people are already bringing some very basic materials like water and hygienic items, which we are either able to provide through sending the money from Banda Aceh to their bank account, or we can do it by buying things here in Banda and Medan or in Jakarta and sending them to the place of the disaster.”

Rescue teams will now be working at the scene of the catastrophe, equipped to tunnel through the wreckage for survivors. Those above the rubble are without infrastructure and are in need of medicine, fuel, drinking water and shelter. The Czech charity People in Need is beginning its exploratory mission and has freed up half a million crowns for immediate humanitarian aid. Mr Váně of Caritas says there are two key words in terms of how Czechs can help the situation: money and media.

Photo: CTK

“With disasters, the time that they stay in the media is the most crucial thing for getting help to the victims. Money is needed. What I heard from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that they don’t want to be sending any humanitarian assistants, which I think is great because there are other countries that are closer, like Australia, New Zealand and others who can do this much quicker and much more efficiently. What the ministry wants is to allocate the funding, either for the emergency phase or for the longer term development, because, again these basic needs in the first week or the next two weeks won’t be enough. That’s quite clear already from the statements from the Indonesian government, which openly asked the international community to support the victims of this disaster.”

Photo: CTK

Caritas Internationalis is a Catholic social development and service organisation, the Czech chapter of which has been working in Sumatra since the Indian Ocean earthquake that killed 230,000 people in eleven countries in 2005. Of the series of earthquakes that have hit Indonesia over the last five years, three in Sumatra were among the largest in magnitude in recorded history.

For more information on the work of Czech charity organisations in Sumatra and elsewhere see for http://www.charita.cz/default.asp?nLanguageID=2 for Caritas Czech Republic and http://peopleinneed.cz/indexen.php for People in Need.