Yayasan Kampung Halaman

 

Have you ever heard the word ‘Disaster’? When we hear the word ‘disaster’, we think of earthquakes, floods, landslides, or other situations caused by natural phenomena. That’s not wrong… The word ‘disaster’ itself, according to Wikipedia, is often associated with something bad. Etimologically, the word can be broken down to ‘dis’, which means ‘something unfavorable’, and ‘astro’, which refers to a star. ‘Dis-astro’, then means ‘an event precipitated by the stars’. *Source: http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bencana.

 

It is true that natural disasters are the consequences from a combination of natural phenomena (such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, etc.) and human activity. The weakness of humans caused by poor emergency management results in financial and structural loss, and even death. Actually, there are also disasters that are not caused by natural phenomena, such as accidents, death of a family member because of illness, or homes burned in a fire caused by a short circuit.

In the past few yeas, Indonesia has experienced many natural disasters. In December 2004, there was an earthquake and tsunami in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam that killed almost 200,000 people. Then, three months later, on March 28, 2005, an earthquake that measured 8.7 SR struck Nias Island. Another earthquake, this one measuring 5.9 SR, struck Yogyakarta in May 2006. A tsunami destroyed the tourist resort at Pangandaran Beach in West Java. In 2007, a landslide in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, killed dozens of people. Shortly after that, at least 70 people died in an earthquake in West Sumatera. Then, there was an earthquake in Bengkulu in Septebmer 2007. There have been many natural disasters since then. Most recently, an earthquake measuring 7.3 SR struck Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Wednesday, September 2, 2009. Later that month, on September 30, 2009, there was another earthquake of 7.6 SR in Padang, West Sumatera.
 

*(source http://www.geocities.com/risanuri/agama/DaftarBencana.html dan http://www.bmg.go.id).

Assistance for the victims of natural disasters comes from everywhere. Besides the government, various groups – professional, skilled experts, and the general public – contribute aid in the form of medical care, food and food preparation, clothing, money, and entertainment.
 

What can young people do for victims of natural disasters? It is often said that young people do not care about others and are lost in their own activities. Is this true? Here are excerpts from interviews with several young people:

Is it true that young people are egotistical and do not care about other people outside of their own circles?
< Dhany Yunar, Yogyakarta: It’s not that they don’t care, but sometimes just not sensitive. They’re not aware of the world around them yet, so react to whatever they feel …

Enur Sholihah (Nunu),Tasikmalaya: It’s relative.

Medina Rachma Lea (Nara), Yogyakarta: Sometimes we don’t feel that we have to think about people outside our own circles because we young people have lots of problems of our own.

Nur Wulandari (Wucha), Balikpapan: Not really, actually, they care, but we just don’t have enough guidance. Sometimes, if there is no one to show us what to do, we are confused about where to start.

Tri Karyanti (Yanti), Yogyakarta: Not everyone is like that … but most of them are …

Rina Amalia (Rina), Tasikmalaya: Young people are human too … they have feelings, they have hearts … so of course, they care. It’s just that it looks like they don’t care just because they are not united and not visible. I’m certain that lots of young people care about victims of disasters, at least by donating pocket money, that’s caring, isn’t it?

At the present time, there have been many natural disasters. Perhaps you have experienced one. What should you, as young people, do in response to this situation?

< Yanti:  Yes, help in whatever way we can… there are many places where we can donate things, whether in the form of money or clothes, like on campus, village youth groups, mosques, etc. But if you don’t have money or clothes to donate, then just help by praying..


Nara: To be honest, natural disasters don’t affect the world of youth very much. Maybe we feel compassionate, but we don’t know what to do. We want to donate money, but we what we have is only just enough. We want to help with a social project, but its difficult to coordinate the timing.

Rina: I think that young people now have mastered the media. Just see, what is it that young people cannot do? Internet: Facebook, MySpace, multiply, tagged, twitter; photography, music, film. Most of us have mastered all of this media. Young people can, you know, help disaster victims by spreading information about the damages and the situations of the earthquake victims. It feels like its not important, doesn’t it?

Nunu: Maybe a lot of people have helped by collecting donations. But, young people have not yet thought about the effects of disaster, that there are not just physical damages, but also psychological trauma. Moreso if we don’t experience it directly and only see it on television. Sometimes, even the young people who have experienced a disaster cannot clearly communicate about how to help them.

How much have young people contributed to assisting victims of natural disasters in your area or in other places in Indonesia? Remember that many victims of natural disasters are young people too.
Nunu: Most of the contributions of young people in giving assistance has been spontaneous, such as collecting donations, etc. To go directly to the field, they think, … what do we do? What can I do?

< Wucha: just recently, young people joined in a charity concert to raise funds for the victims of the earthquakes in Tasikmalaya and Padang. They were willing to work hard and sweat. It’s unlikely we would donate a little “spending money” because we don’t earn any income yet.
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Nara: To be honest, we haven’t donated much to victims of natural disasters because we don’t know what we should do.

Rina: I want to tell about what happened after the earthquake in Tasikmalaya. At first, I was sure that the earthquake victims in Tasikmalaya were okay. I was so sure that I was even apathetic to the people who were collecting donations for the Tasik victims. I said that they were exaggerating the problem. Eh… it turns out that there were many victims even in the city, not to mention those in the counties, and even now many of those whose homes were destroyed are still living in tents or in shacks made from whatever materials they could gather in the rubble. To this day. The psychological effects are not yet over. Something that I heard about from a social activist in Cisayong, is that the children do not want to go to school because they are afraid that an earthquake will occur. I was so sure because I didn’t know anything, I didn’t have clear information. If there was any information, it was in the local newspaper (which is not popular in my age group) that I rarely read. If important information was channeled through popular media, it would have greater effect, moreso if it targeted young people who they say don’t care.

What do you suggest so that young people will care more?
Nunu: At least, if we are victims of a disaster, then we will really know what we need, so we can communicate clearly to the adults around us. (This is important.) Or if we are lucky to not be victims of a disaster, when we see others, we should try to think about what they need in a situation like that (both in the emergency stage and long-term). If we already have an idea, then we can recruit other young people or even adults to give assistance according to the needs of the young victims of disaster.

Yanti: Young people will move to help if there is someone to coordinate the effort. My suggestion is that young people must be more responsive and caring. If there is a need, then volunteer directly.

< Nara: Actually, they can organize a fund-raising event for young people or another activity.

Wucha: Young people should be aware that if they cannot help in terms of materials, then their energy is also welcome. The important thing is to be sensitive to the community and what is happening there.

Rina: Currently, many young people could use Facebook/twitter/MySpace (popular media for young people) for important matters, such as stimulating concern, rather than just complaining about Malaysia, making fun of “Alay”, or posting personal soundbites. It’s simple, isn’t it?

Perhaps there are some young people who do not care or are confused about what to do, but many young people went directly to the field to assist other youth who were earthquake victims. Soca Tasikmalaya organized one activity for youth in Tasikmalaya, that is, the Community Media Education Program for Young Victims of the Earthquake in Tasikmalaya. This program was organized by Soca in cooperation with Uplink, supported by Kampung Halaman Foundation. The program focused on young earthquake victims in Tasikmalaya making community video, photos and writing. The videos would be shown in several locations that were struck by the earthquake. Besides giving the young people something to do, this activity provided them with a media for communicating with other people so that they would not just store away their own stories. (Read the entire story on the Facebook site:  Rumah Soca and the website: Kacapanon).

< Rina: I think the young people in Tasik were responsive too. For example, I know of a student theater group that toured earthquake locations to entertain and help calm down people who were desparate or were depending on government aid. The help from the government isn’t instant, is it? There are stages, and they take a long time. My friends at Soca House Tasikmalaya and I, who were assisted by young people from other communities, tried to relay information between the earthquake victims and the greater community that didn’t know about them, so that there would never again be a situation where “those struck by the earthquake have their own problems while those shopping are totally unaware of them”. Besides that, Soca House tried to entertain and encourage the victims to do whatever they had to do. The friends from Soca House assisted the victims to gather information through videos about earthquakes in other areas, such as Karangploso, so that they could solve their problems themselves.
One more thing: earthquake victims are not as weak as we may think … We thought they would not want to see or hear anything about earthquakes because of their trauma. But, apparently, they need all of that, especially about how to solve the post-earthquake problems in other areas. Information can be energizing, cant it?

Returning to disasters. We cannot predict disasters, in whatever form, especially natural disasters. If we do not directly experience it, then we, especially young people, should do as much as we can to help the victims. Actually, whatever we do for disaster victims returns to us eventually. No matter how small our effort, it means a lot to them. Come on, let’s do something. Show that you care!

 

ANOTHER STORY ABOUT DISASTERS

There are many stories from the areas that have been struck by natural disasters that can be shared with friends. And, it appears, that not all of them are concerned with the natural disaster. Here is Nunu’s story from Tasikmalaya:
This is my experience after an earthquake struck my city. Cigalontang is one of the areas that suffered heavy damage in the earthquake. The journey to Cigalontang from Tasikmalaya takes one hour. We (my friends at Rumah Bintang, Star House, and me) headed for the earthquake aid center run by Muhammadiyah in the Parawan-Cigalontang hamlet. To make it short, I volunteered to help the young people there, so asked the volunteers to gather the youth in that area together. There were only 13 young girls aged 14-18. (It was a coincidence that the name of the hamlet was “Parawan” [virgin], and the only ones who came were girls, haha…)
We started talking about the earthquake of September 22. The girls didn’t seem too traumatized by the event, because their houses suffered only minor damages. Apparently, only a few houses were completely destroyed. The print and electronic media that covered their hamlet had made it seem as if the damage there was very extensive. Of course, they were still afraid of another quake. There were children who said that their schools were damaged and they had to study in a tent. I tried to find out more. A more important problem arose that the news media had not been covering. The number of young people in Parawan-Cigalontang who had quit school was very high. Most of them did not continue to go to school after graduating from elementary school, but just loafed around. At most, the boys went to find work outside Cigalongtang. The girls … didn’t do anything, perhaps got married at a very young age or worked at home embroidering headscarves. There was even one 15-year old girl who had been married for four months who joined in the conversation with us.

Education was a major issue in this hamlet. The reason why many of the young people dropped out of school was a cliché: money. Actually, there was an inexpensive school that was affordable, Darel Fikri, but many children and parents did not want to go to that school because they didn’t want to be labeled as poor. Also, children didn’t want to go there because it was also a pesantren (Islamic boarding school). Ironically, the most of the students at the pesantren were not from that area, but from other regions in Java, Bandung and Tangerang. Very few children from Parawan studied there.
Newspapers are luxury items there. This is understandable because access to the area is fairly difficult. The steep roads twist and turn. Moreso with computers and internet access, which are rare, almost non-existent. When asked what they do, most of them answer: play!

Oh, yes, according to these kids, Parawan hamlet is often involved in fights with their neighboring hamlet. This makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. The problems that arise are usually minor incidents that develop into violence between the young people in the different hamlets. It seems that they (especially the ones who don’t go to school) are resigned to their situations. They are no longer eager to study, even read. When asked if they want to go to school again, they say that they do, but are too embarrassed because they are older than the other students in their classes. Wow … isn’t it awful if they are just left that way?
As for the donations, there are none specifically for the young people. Usually, aid for the mothers is in the form of basic food needs, and milk and baby food for babies and children.
Photos by: Raihan (5) &  private sources

 

Foto oleh: Raihan (5 tahun) dan milik pribadi narasumber.