Indonesia

The Earthquake – Yogyakarta, Java

An earthquake measuring 6.2 hit Yogyakarta and Central java Provinces on the 27th of May 2006 with the epicenter just 15 km of the major city of Yogyakarta. This destruction was immediately followed by two volcanic eruptions of Mount Merapi. In the most affected area of Bantul, 80% of homes were destroyed , 2 300 people were killed and 3 400 were hurt.  In total over 350 000 homes were destroyed in Yogyakarta and Central java Provinces.

The MENTOR Initiative responded by distribution of over 16 500 sheets of Insecticide Treated Plastic Sheeting (ITPS) and worked with affected communities to build new interim homes for approximately 17 500 people. These homes were very well received by the community as provided protection from disease vectors of dengue and malaria, as well as shelter.  In addition, the MENTOR team constructed temporary health facilities, community building and a school using ITPS.

In parallel with shelter activities, MENTOR implemented large scale larviciding of ponds, ditches and other surface water mosquito breeding areas and Indoor Residual Spray campaigns. Emergency community programmes were instigated to clear earthquake debris that was ideal for creating breeding sites for dengue and malaria vectors. Large scale community education reached more than 100 000 people through this emergency response in this integrated programme, a programme that significantly improved the speed of recovery from the crisis.