Indonesia: Johanniter prepares communities in north Sulawesi for disasters

Sulawesi, one of the largest islands of Indonesia is regularly hit by natural disasters like earthquakes, volcano eruptions and floods/ tsunamis. In order to get prepared for emergencies there are some activities on district levels, but not for the broad population. Therefore, Johanniter International Assistance started a project on 1st July 2010 to improve the capacity of communities in disaster preparedness in combination with first aid.

The target of the project is to strengthen 20 of the already established and so called “teams siaga”, who are responsible for the organization during emergency situations of the community. During the training there will be identified safe collecting points for the village people and they will be renovated and equipped with some relevant things like flash lights, shovels, ropes etc. what is necessary in order to rescue injured people. To make people familiar with the collecting point, the equipment and emergency situations, there will take place simulation exercises, which are conducted under supervision of Johanniter trainer and which are coordinated with the available local disaster authorities.

In addition also 9.600 people of communities get trainings in disaster preparedness and first aid, so that they can react on the disaster with their families. They will be informed about the different kinds of disaster, get the knowledge how to prepare, to react adequately while and after a disaster, but also how to use the infrastructure like evacuation routes, collecting points and the communication chain. 

The duration of the project is 12 months, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. Johanniter implement the project in cooperation with the local organization Pelita Kasih Abadi (PEKA).