Providing Aid for Flash Flood Victims in Garut City, Indonesia

By Jakarta Relief Team, Indonesia (Originally in Indonesian)

 After prolonged heavy rainfall, on the evening of September 20, 2016, Garut City in West Java, Indonesia was severely hit by flash floods due to the overflowing of the Cimanuk and Cikamini Rivers. The catastrophic floods claimed at least 23 lives and destroyed approximately 150 houses in seven districts. Over 700 people were relocated to the temporary shelters. Following the floods, a state of emergency was put into effect for seven days. The government officials worked hard to mitigate the effect and reduce casualties.

Upon hearing the devastating news, our Association members from Jakarta Center, responding to Supreme Master Ching Hai’s compassionate instruction to help those in need, contributed IDR 34,825,100 (US$2,600) and immediately formed a relief team to visit the disaster site.  On September 22, after driving approximately seven hours, we surveyed the area around Garut City and its surrounding villages. Most of the victims were still staying in the shelters, although some families managed to return to their houses to clean them.

After returning home, we prepared 300 relief packages overnight including vegan food, personal hygiene and clothing items as well as 100 packs of baby food and 50 sleeping mats, which were distributed in the following two days. The recipients were very grateful for the gifts as most of them had lost their belongings to the flood.

We met Haj Dadang, an elderly Muslim gentleman, who generously allowed people to use his house for shelter. Because of his noble action, many lives were saved. He told us that the disaster was a reminder from Allah for people to take care of nature and plant more trees in the mountains so that the rain water will not pour directly into the river.

To fulfill the requests of many affected students in Garut, our relief team drove back on October 4 with 400 school bags, some books and pens. We visited seven schools in the disaster area and distributed the supplies to students in elementary, junior high and senior high schools. The students were so happy and thanked us for the new supplies as they were getting ready to start their classes again.

We pray that Garut City will soon recover from the disaster and the people will resume their normal lives. We are deeply grateful to Master for Her infinite blessing and Her loving reminder to always help people in need.

Expenditure by The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association for Flood Relief Work in Garut City, West Java, Indonesia