2 years since the Sulawesi earthquake in Indonesia
It has been two years since the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake that occurred on September 28th, 2018 on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In addition to the tsunami and landslides, the earthquake triggered massive soil liquefaction that caused extensive damage to the local population.
Peace Winds was on the ground immediately after the earthquake, and in cooperation with our local partner ACT (https://www.act.id/en), we have continued our emergency relief activities. This includes the distribution of goods, construction of temporary housing, and subsequent construction of water supply facilities and toilets to assist the restoration of agricultural land. In total, we have delivered assistance to 6,594 people in 895 households.
The farmland restoration support project, which ran from July 2019 to the end of August 2020, included the construction of irrigation wells, farmland preparation, and distribution of crop seeds. Farmers who received aid have now begun harvesting crops such as corn, tomatoes, bitter gourd, and pepper. With this assistance, local residents are now able to earn an income from farming for the first time since the disaster.
The key to post-disaster reconstruction is how local residents can recover their lives and rebuild on their own. In the farmlands devastated by the liquefaction and tsunami, it was difficult for the local people to resume farming on their own efforts. Our project allowed many farmers to resume farming with daily wages playing a large role towards recovery.
Merrion from Maranatha village in Sigi province told us about the current situation:
“After the earthquake, we wanted to start farming again, but we could not afford to buy land and seeds, so we had to support our family by doing day labor such as construction work. Thanks to Peace Winds and their support in purchasing seeds, as well as construction and land preparation, we were able to resume farming.”
From October 19th 2020, Peace Winds and ACT began working with a new local partner, INANTA, starting a disaster prevention and mitigation capacity building project in areas considered to be at high risk of disaster. However, we will also continue to provide support in the resumption of agriculture in the most urgent areas.
Additionally, we will ensure that we take the utmost care in our activities to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Indonesia and continue to give top priority to the health of the affected people and staff.
This project is funded by your donations as well as a grant from Japan Platform (https://www.japanplatform.org/).
We would like to thank you for your continued support.