Indonesian Volcano Relief Efforts
In November 2010, Mount Merapi, the largest active volcano in Indonesia erupted causing devastating destruction and widespread evacuations. I, Ali Manek (founder of The World Is Our Village) and my wife, Nafisa, went to Indonesia to assist.
The project had two targets and objectives:
- Volcano Victims
- Provide Eid-ul-Adha meals for refugees who had been displaced into camps, gifts for refugee children, supplies for Children Relief Centers.
- Orphans
- Provide Eid-ul-Adha meals, Eid gifts for the children, supplies for the orphanage.
For about 2 weeks we campaigned by emailing friends and family and using Facebook. We were able to raise $2120 USD in this time! Our Village contributed an additional $906 dollars to bring our total to $3026. (approx. 26,000,000 IDR)
As always, we are proud to say that 100% of donations went to the people that they were intended to reach!
We split the donations in half (then added special request as some donors requested their donations go specifically towards the volcano victims or orphans). We sent 15,000,000 IDR (approx. $1900 USD) to PRPM and Nafisa and I used the remaining 11,000,000 IDR (approx. $1200 USD) towards the Orphans in Bali.
I contacted my friends in the affected area (the same group of people I worked with in the Indonesia Earthquake in 2006) and had arranged to work with them again. The group, “Posko Rakyat Peduli Merapi” [PRPM] (Translates to: Center of Helping People for Merapi) is a grassroots group of volunteers who were managing 5 Refugee Camps in Yogyakarta with 5886 displaced people and 1021 children! They are also running Children Relief Centers (similar to the ones we opened up in the Earthquake in 2006) with volunteer teachers and psychologist to help the children.
Volcano Victims:
PRPM used the funds to purchase a cow for the Eid celebrations which was slaughtered and divided amongst the refugee camps. They also purchased one goat which was used to provide Eid-ul-Adha dinner for the refugees in one of the camps. With the remaining funds they purchased supplies (toys and books) for the Children Relief Centers inside the refugee camps.
Orphans:
Nafisa and I were connected with students at a local university (Imam and Lucy) and spent 4 days working with them. They arranged a day of visits at 2 different orphanages on the Island of Bali where we were able to speak to the directors to hear about their needs and concerns. The first orphanage was also a boarding school and was well run and organized.
We spent some time with the children at the second orphanage and noticed that they had no toys for the children and was much more in need of support. They had 48 orphans (from surrounding villages and other islands in Indonesia) and 6 infants who were being cared for by some women volunteers.
We spent a full day in the business districts shopping for the children. We were given a few requests and purchased a number of additional gifts: Hijaabs with fancy pins, sarongs, prayer hats, traditional Indonesian dress for men, infant clothes, baby toys, balls, tennis and badminton rackets, Barbie dolls, Lego sets, coloring books with colored pencils, reading books, notebooks, pens, pencils, and other stationary and much more!
On the day of Eid, we arranged to have one goat sent to the first orphanage and two sent to the second orphanage. Nafisa and I spent the day with the children giving them the gifts and toys. We ate lunch with them and were introduced to a number of different Eid rituals.
Although the Orphanage was in need of support, they decided to keep one goat and give the other goat to members of their community. From donations from us and others, the orphans and local volunteers slaughtered a number of other goats and cows, divided the meat into packages and gave it to the surrounding community.
Nafisa and I would like to personally thank all those who contributed, with donations or just spreading the word on Facebook, because it was your help that gave us the opportunity to make this Eid a very special one for a number of people in need. The smiles that we put on the faces of these people, both in the Volcano Refugee Camps as well as the Orphanage, are priceless and it was your contributions that made this possible.
Thank you for your support and please continue to spread the word by clicking “LIKE” on all our Facebook posts and encouraging your friends to join!
Ali and Nafisa Manek
Special Thanks to Our Donors: (Click Here for the full Balance Sheet)
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