Rebuilding lives four years on from Java quake

Updated June 15, 2010 10:56:32

Four years ago, an earthquake killed nearly six-thousand people in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta and left half a million people homeless. Aid agencies now say they're using their efforts there as an example of how to respond to a natural disaster. But locals say they still need more help.

Presenter: Jennifer Macey
Speakers: Srikariawanti, Batik producer in Yogyakarta; Torsten Haschenz, head of the International Organisation of Migration; Shamima Khan, manager of the Java Reconstruction Fund; vice governor of Yogyakarta Sri Paku Alam; Chris Capon, head of operations for the World Bank in Indonesia; Diah Piatokola, former community organiser in West Java

JENNIFER MACEY: In Kebon village 45 km from Yogyakarta women are colouring and washing the traditional Javanese batik fabric.

Four years ago a third of the houses in this village collapsed in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake and many people lost relatives and their livelihoods.

Hanging up the finished batik to dry is Srikariawanti, one of 170 batik producers in the village. Her kitchen crumbled in the quake.

SRIKARIAWANTI (translated): Many building is broken up and it's hard to get the money in that time. Many people are missing.

JENNIFER MACEY: Srikariawanti says she lived in a tent for three months. It took another six months to rebuild her house.

SRIKARIAWANTI (translated): She has got the money from the Government project. It is 20 million rupiahs. She prefer to live in the tent because she's still a bit scared that it will happen again to the house - the earthquake.

JENNIFER MACEY: Four years on the houses have been rebuilt and the aid agencies are still there.

For the past two years the International Organisation for Migration has been supporting 3,000 small businesses affected by the quake through micro-credit programs. The head of the IOM in Yogyakarta Torsten Haschenz says they have provided materials, equipment and training in bookkeeping and marketing.

TORSTEN HASCHENZ: What we have done here is cluster about 170 small batik producers into various producer groups, integrating the process from the design to the production to the marketing.

And they have already increased markedly their sales. Government entities from this district have already ordered uniforms to be produced by these local producers. And for us this is one of the successes.

JENNIFER MACEY: The IOM projects are supported by the $94 million Java Reconstruction Fund made up of mostly European donors, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Shamima Khan manages the Fund.

SHAMIMA KHAN: To get the communities back on their feet, not only did they need a roof over their heads but they needed to have their assets, their looms and small, small equipment replaced so that they could restart their economic activities again. So it was very much recognised that it has to be part of a full package.

JENNIFER MACEY: With the earthquake coming so soon after the Boxing Day tsunami aid agencies took lessons from the reconstruction effort in Aceh where there were reports of empty houses and the mismanagement of funds.

The vice governor of Yogyakarta Sri Paku Alam says there was a big push towards community reconstruction based on the Javanese culture of self-help.

SRI PAKU ALAM: Construction in Aceh, it's not done by the people but done by contractors you see. What we have done here we will stand by people until everything is better.

JENNIFER MACEY: The head of operations for the World Bank in Indonesia is Chris Capon. He says the difference between Aceh and Java is that as people rebuilt their own houses rather than relying on contractors there was less misuse of aid money.

CHRIS CAPON: And that was one of the really good features here, that when there was a bit of mischief somewhere with somebody taking the money and not spending it on what they should have, their whole community had to pitch in and solve it. The money stopped for that community until they found a solution and they did.

JENNIFER MACEY: But there has been criticism that people were forced to rebuild their own houses because the Indonesian Government agencies were slow to act.

Diah Piatokola is a former community organiser in West Java. She says while micro-credit schemes are a good concept villages like Kebon need much more government support to help lift people out of poverty.

DIAH PIATOKOLA: It is not just solved by maker of financing, it needs also government policy, it's more fair trade, good business knowledge also, good infrastructure, good public transportation. It's correlated with many issues in this society.

It is impossible just make raw finance concept can help the poor people of this country.

JENNIFER MACEY: The IOM expects that batik producers will earn three times their monthly income by the end of the project in 2011.

But for people like Srikariawanti her house and livelihood may be restored but the trauma remains.

SRIKARIAWANTI (translated): Oh yes, I still have trauma. For example if a truck passing by it is like a bombing, she really scared.