Indonesia has harboured some of the worst natural disasters in recent history. The tropical archipelago teeters on top of the Ring of Fire, a loop of geological instability that encircles the Pacific Ocean. Indonesia – and its population of 220 million – is exposed to high levels of seismic activity, as the island string is positioned above the intersection of three mammoth crustal plates. Its shaky underwater footing, combined with a landscape that houses more than 500 volcanoes and 5,000 rivers, makes Indonesia one of the most vulnerable places in the world for natural disasters, creating a grab-bag environment with eruptions, earthquakes, flooding, landslides, droughts, and tidal waves.
With the catastrophic 2004 tsunami still in recent memory, the government of Indonesia has made natural disaster preparedness a national priority, drafting the National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction and establishing the Disaster Preparedness Law in 2007. While these efforts are a securing step for the islands’ residents, the national capacity still needs support. Most government agencies have little, if any, medical first aid and disaster preparedness training. Doctors, nurses, and paramedics face similar struggles in handling sudden events. Hospitals and their directors are also unequipped to manage their facilities during a disaster. Ambulance services, policemen, and search and rescue personnel also lack the basic skills that make the life-and-death difference at the site of the disaster.
International Medical Corps, with the support of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), has implemented a two-year program to help support Indonesia respond to disasters by building government capacity for swift, effective natural disaster response. The effort, Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response in Indonesia (SEPRI), collaborates at the local level with domestic NGOs and emergency response teams to create a strong network for the Indonesian government. As of the end of last month, International Medical Corps has supported the training of over 1,200 medical and non-medical personnel responsible for all aspects of emergency response.
“Through this approach, International Medical Corps is able to improve responsiveness at each level of the disaster,” says Nesya Hughes, International Medical Corps country director in Indonesia. “By increasing basic life support and first responder knowledge, we increase the likelihood that lives are saved at the disaster site or in-route to the nearest hospital. We help save lives in hospitals by training doctors and nurses in emergency care, and hospital administration in disaster management.”
This March, International Medical Corps and its Indonesian emergency response partner, Ambulan 118, consolidated 14 different trainings into a month-long program titled Safe Communities Training for Disaster Preparedness and Response. Held in disaster-prone Lampung, a province at the southern-most tip of the island of Sumatra, the conference brought together over 300 people for comprehensive disaster management education.
“With a wide variety of disasters, it creates a complex emergency need,” says the governor of Lampung at the training’s opening ceremony. “To prepare for disasters requires special skills and knowledge that can be developed through building the community capacity. For this reason, this series of trainings in Lampung Province has become one of the strategic ways to have preparedness at the local community.”
Creating a close to real-life experience, International Medical Corps and its local partner Ambulan 118 facilitated two disaster simulations allowing the trainees to put theory into practice. The first recreated a traffic accident where a gasoline truck driver collided with a motorcyclist. Both drivers were severely injured, and the emergency intensified when the gasoline truck exploded, increasing the number of casualties and victims. The second simulation was an earthquake and tsunami, paralyzing Lampung and disconnecting it from the rest of Indonesia. Local organizations, including the Indonesian Red Cross and the Provincial-Level Ministry of Social Affairs, also participated in the simulations, making them as realistic as possible.
This training followed a simulation that International Medical Corps carried out in September 2007 in Padang City, West Sumatra. Only three days following the simulation, a 7.1 earthquake rumbled across the region. In a later review, participants of the training reported that they felt more confident in the real-life response than their counterparts in other island cities.
“A disaster simulation is the perfect way for us to practice what we learned from the training, as well as to know how to coordinate with related institutions so that when a disaster occurs we are ready and able to minimize impact,” says training participant Siti Hazani.
While the trainings were carried out this March, West Sumatra faced a different kind of disaster, as torrential downpour stripped hillsides, covering roads in mud, rocks, and debris. The landslides were only one result of the heavy rainfall. Some of Sumatra’s island neighbors, including Java and Riau, experienced up to two meters of flooding, making some road networks impossible to travel.
According to the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Indonesia experienced 15 emergency-level natural disasters in 2007. With flooding and earthquakes particularly common, and other natural disasters, like tsunamis, possible, International Medical Corps’ SEPRI program enables Indonesian authorities to come together as a collective body in the event of an emergency. With each disaster response entity knowing its role and how to carry it out effectively, the citizens of Indonesia are not only supported by more capable individuals, but by a more prepared emergency-response infrastructure.
“Besides the skills and knowledge, cross-sector strategic coordination also plays an important role in disaster preparedness and mitigation,” concludes the governor of Lampung. “Disaster preparedness or mitigation does not succeed without synergic coordination.”