RI survivors lend a helping hand in Haiti
Lilian Budianto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/18/2010 10:50 AM | Headlines
Two Indonesians who spent more than a month helping victims in earthquake-ravaged Haiti — many of them their own colleagues — returned home last weekend.
Endang Dwi Satriyani and Yogi Anggoro, from the UN Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince , spoke to reporters Wednesday about their experiences during and after the magnitude 7 quake on Jan. 12 that killed more than 200,000 people.
Both are trained volunteers for UN peace missions, and notched up valuable experience working in Aceh in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami that claimed more than 230,000 lives.
“Dozens of my colleagues are still missing,” Endang said at the press conference held at the Foreign Ministry in Central Jakarta .
“Those who died were taken home by their families.
“I’d spoken to some of them on the morning before the quake,” she added. “Only later I found out they didn’t make it.”
Endang barely survived the quake, having almost been hit by a falling iron bar as she tried to make her way out of the UN building right after the tremor.
“I was at the office, waiting for a ride home, when the ground began shaking,” she recounted. “I was trembling and I fell to my knees, and suddenly this bar fell in front of me.”
She said she screamed for help in the dark once the shaking had stopped, and heard a reply far away.
“I screamed to my colleague and he reached for me and led me out of the building, crawling through the debris.”
She survived the quake with minor bruises.
Before leaving for Haiti in September 2007, Endang worked for an NGO in Aceh for two-and-a-half years.
She will return to Haiti in March after renewing her contract for another six months.
Yogi, who worked for Save the Children and the American Red Cross in Aceh before going to Haiti in October 2009, said he too would go back there.
In the aftermath of the quake, Endang and Yogi said they helped organize Indonesian assistance entering Haiti , after the relief supplies were off-loaded in the neighboring Dominican Republic .
Indonesia sent 30 tons of aid and an 81-strong team of workers and officials, but they were denied entry by the US military because the local airport was overwhelmed.
“Everybody moved very fast. Planes were landing and taking off again in minutes, but still there wasn’t enough space for everybody’s supplies,” said Endang, licensed to fly single-engine planes.
The post-tsunami disaster management in Aceh has been touted as a model for post-quake efforts in Haiti , where the slow distribution of aid has seen the death toll rise.
In the strife-ravaged Aceh , Indonesia granted virtually unrestricted access to international search and rescue teams, including foreign military units.
“With the surviving UN staff and others, we both helped in the search for victims,” Yogi said. “The situation remains in chaos, even now.”
He added he dealt mostly with logistics in the post-quake period, describing the devastated Port-au-Prince peppered with dead bodies.
“I’m not traumatized,” Yogi said.
“We got used to the same things [in Aceh], and we’re ready to go back.”
