On May 27th the Yogyakarta earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck the southern coast of Indonesia’s island of Java. The quake left approximately 6,000 persons dead and another 600,000 homeless. The World Bank now ranks this earthquake as one of the worst natural disasters of the past 10 years. ABC Asia Pacific reported an estimated cost of replacing quake damaged housing in Central Java at $1.6 billion. In comparison, the housing reconstruction costs for the entire region affected by the December 2004 Asian tsunami has come to $2.2 billion.

Classes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, are still being held in temporary classrooms, tents or outside. Here the "When the Earth Speaks" curriculum is being used in outside activities.

On May 30th Mary McKay received an urgent appeal for assistance from William Ingram in Indonesia. William is a textile arts colleague of Mary and founder of a non-profit dedicated to Indonesian community development through encouraging the preservation and marketing of traditional textile arts. William urged EPIC to form a partnership with Nia Fliam-Ismoyo, an international batik artist living in the stricken Javanese city of Yogyakarta.

Through phone conversations and e-mail, Nia expressed her particular concern about the unmet psychological needs of children in the aftermath of this disaster. Nia wrote, "as a result of the earthquake, children have experienced post-traumatic stress on two levels – first on a personal level and second [resulting from] the trauma experienced by their parents who are also now pre-occupied with the need to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. The children need attention and help to gain coping strategies to deal with their unexpected situation." Given these needs and Nia’s passion to respond, a new EPIC partnership program was born.

Program Description

1) Project to Address Post-Trauma Stress of Children, Ages 3-12 years

These young children are encouraged to release their fears and insecurities through open expression with paints.

In July, a Children’s Center in Sudimoro started working with children suffering from post-traumatic stress. With help from the first funds sent by EPIC, 65 children were encouraged to overcome their fears by being provided opportunities for open expression through art and, in order to help restore tactile senses, enabled to play with water, sand, clay, and wax. They were also led in activities to encourage feelings of having some control and a sense of independence. Group activities motivated the children to cooperate and to be creative in seeking joint solutions. The project is being overseen by a US-trained Indonesian psychologist with disaster relief experience, and it has served as a model for wider work in other regions affected by the earthquake. EPIC has provided art materials for the Children’s Center and assistance in monitoring the program.

During the first three months, emphasis was on training local facilitators. At the end of this time, the local facilitators assumed control of the operation of the center. All materials purchased for the therapeutic activities were left with the Children’s Center, and the project continues to provide assistance with evaluation and advising for the local facilitators.

The total budget for the Children’s Center for 3 months was $2,500.

2) The Work of the Children’s Center Expanded for Elementary Schools

In August local schools started the academic year, some in tents and temporary structures. The project began a second response, working with 4 elementary schools in the southern portion of the city of Yogyakarta. This project has a two-pronged purpose: 1) helping children heal by expressing their feelings through art and 2) teaching basic scientific understanding about earthquakes and volcanoes.

The theme, "When the Earth Speaks", encourages the students to view the earth as a living, moving entity that "speaks" to us daily – through the wind, water (waves, waterfalls, running water, etc.) and also through the rumblings of earth tremors. Creative writing and art opportunities offer the students an outlet to express their feelings about the earth’s voices and movements, while science experiments introduce basic scientific principles about earthquakes and volcanoes. Class facilitators are students from the psychology and natural science departments of Sanata Dharma University.

Nia Fliam-Ismoyo's dream is that the project could purchase and modify a "big yellow school bus" to take the same program used in the first 4 schools to schools in the rural Bantul region. This area was even more completely devastated by the May 27th earthquake.

Work with the 4 elementary schools was initiated in August at the beginning of the school year in Indonesia. The total budget for the first four schools, serving 2,400 students, is $7,900.

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