Indonesia

The September 2009 earthquake destroyed many homes in West Sumatra. As of May 2010, CRS had helped rebuild homes for more than 11,000 Indonesians. Photo by Maria Josephine Wijiastuti/CRS

Indonesia is known for being prone to natural disasters of all kinds, ranging from climatic (floods, drought) to geologic (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.), biological (avian influenza) to man-made (deforestation, mining, conflicts). With an already high level of food insecurity, households' vulnerability to shocks is high as the assets and structures of communities are jeopardized by these complex emergencies and a general lack of disaster risk reduction and management. Over the past five years, more than 1,500,000 people have been directly affected by natural disasters, primarily in West Sumatera, West Java, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. Following the tsunami of 2004, the government of Indonesia has become more aware of the risks, both real and potential, affecting the provinces, and has taken steps to build the capacity of its staff in disaster risk reduction.

Emergency preparedness and response has also become a priority for the Indonesian Church, specifically the national Caritas office—KARINA—and a growing number of dioceses. Various disasters over the past five years offered opportunities for the dioceses in those areas to contribute to the disaster responses and increase their response and management capacities. This has provided Catholic Relief Services Indonesia with greater opportunity to work with and support the local Church and other organizations to improve their capacity in emergency response programming.

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