Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Jakarta (Agenzia Fides) - The Pontifical Mission Societies office in Indonesia is helping with the work of assisting the victims of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami on 17 July on the island of Java in the district of Bandung. “We are working together with the local Church and various different Catholic groups which have sent, religious, volunteers and young people to give a hand. We are helping Fr Andreas Sudharman in the diocese of Bandung who has a centre for distribution of food and medicine. With a team of psychologists our task is to talk with traumatised people, children especially, bringing comfort and compassion: charity is the soul of mission”, Fides was told by Fr. Patrisius Pa, Pontifical Mission Societies National Director in Indonesia.
In the meantime the death toll has risen to more the 525, 600 injured and 38,000 refugees, especially in the area of Pangandaran.
Caritas Australia intervened immediately with aid. Caritas volunteers are assessing needs in the affected areas. At the moment supplies of tents and camp kitchens have reached Bandung. The camp kitchens, manned by local NGOs and local authorities, will provide meals for the displaced families.
At the request of the Indonesian authorities World Food Programme sent two trucks loads of aid for tsunami victims. Two more trucks are waiting in Yogyakarta to be loaded if necessary. A group of representatives of WFP and UNICEF and the International Red Cross in Yogyakarta, a city recently struck by another quake, visited central Java, while a group of UN operators based in Jakarta assessed damage in western Java. The groups estimate that the number of homeless has reached the 40,000 mark and that 60 percent are families from the Pangandaran area. (Agenzia Fides 19/7/2006 righe 28 parole 287)
