Padang Earthquake Relief Appeal

SurfAid has launched an Emergency Response Appeal to help the people of Padang who were hit by a huge earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) on Wednesday 30 September. 

Our Program Director, Dr David Lange, narrowly escaped death as he fled the Ambacang Hotel, which then collapsed, killing many and trapping others.

Any donations you can make are greatly appreciated.

Please donate here.

SurfAid Earthquake Response and Recovery 
Padang, Thursday 15 October 2009

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reports that 198,200 households still need emergency shelter after the 7.9 earthquake near Padang, West Sumatra, on 30 September.  Lack of accessibility to rural areas remains the major obstacle to providing urgent humanitarian assistance but the Indonesian Military (TNI) has agreed to deploy 500 soldiers to build new roads, or create new access routes, to the isolated affected areas.

SurfAid has been transporting supplies to some of the worst-hit areas north of Padang via boat and then truck. We have distributed 1,163 tool kits, 921 shelter kits, 939 tarpaulins, 501 hygiene kits and 202 sleeping mats in the Pasaman Barat sub-districts of Kinali and Sasak.

SurfAid’s Pasaman Barat distribution team (consisting of 17 staff and four Mentawai student volunteers) will finish there on Saturday 17 October and be ready to move to the Agam district by Monday after a day’s R&R.

The team will distribute non food items, including blankets, to two villages in Sitalang, in the sub-district of Empat Nagari in Agam. One hundred and eighty families in the two villages have severely damaged or destroyed houses.

On Sunday 18 October, SurfAid’s Emergency Preparedness (E-Prep) field coordinator Wawan and a team of five will distribute family tents in the heavily hit Lake Maninjau area of Agam district, where 75 families have been displaced. Wawan and his team will teach the communities how to erect the tents.

On Tuesday 20 October, distribution of non food items will take place in four villages in Batu Kambing, Empat Nagari.

The security risk in Agam, mentioned in previous situation reports, is confined to the Bawan area where there is a small market area and relatively dense population. As the security risk has been confirmed by staff in the sub-district office, SurfAid will reconsider distribution in Bawan.

A team of 10, including SurfAid E-Prep staff,  members of the Mentawai Student Association (FORMA) and IDEP, left for the Mentawai Islands tonight (Thursday 15 October) to start the E-Prep needs assessments there. Questionnaires will be conducted with the local government and communities in 25 villages and will include their capacity to respond to disasters and trauma. Fear of the next earthquake is on everyone's minds and in some villages mothers are taking their children everywhere with them. 

SurfAid continues to work with a team from the Indonesian Association of Psychiatrists who are training local volunteers to provide “psycho-social support”. We will be focusing on children and working closely with schools and other community institutions.  The program will start with four posts in Padang City this weekend and we are planning to roll it out in Agam and affected communities in the Mentawai.


SurfAid CEO, Dr Dave Jenkins, said he was very happy with the progress of SurfAid’s emergency response and recovery to date.

“We have used the same proven strategies as in our previous successful emergency responses, which is leveraging our local knowledge and staff to rapidly discover outlying communities in greatest need and delivering vital supplies,” Dr Dave said.

“It is also important to provide daily situation reports to our donors and partners, such as the UN, so that we make a contribution to the wider response.”