Background
Six years ago (July 17, 2006), Pangandaran village and some southern coastal regions in Java were hit by the unpredicted tsunami. Some NGOs have been working at the regency level yet Pangandaran people do not have a clear understanding and plan for emergency evacuation.Many were lost, including school children, without initial warning and evacuation plan, though the Aceh tsunami in 2004 had brought a big lesson to both specifically Aceh people and Indonesia as general. Even if there is an established InaTEWS (Indonesia Tsunami Early Warning System), Indonesia still lacks integrated tools such sirens in focal points installed and of community-based risk reduction plan. In fact, in most cases, victims are a greater number of women and children.
Innovative Solution
COMRADE Project focuses on women and children as primary beneficiaries. Male beneficiaries are mainly involved in a role as leaders to form a community-based committee in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in village and sub-district levels. OPRB (DRR Organization) Pangandaran is officially functioning to develop the village emergency preparedness and response plan (EPRP). As the result, together with ADRA Indonesia, OPRB has assisted two elementary schools to have their first own standard operational procedure of school EPRP socialized to and involving teachers-parents committee, students, and other stakeholders. As trauma healing approach, a Russian-German nationality volunteered as the cultural advisor to involve students in indigenous traditional games. Through this project, OPRB personnel and Regional Disaster Mitigation Board (BPBD Ciamis), together with trainers from BPBD Bantul, were able to fix the broken nearby sub-district’s repeater build by GTZ’s project previously. A mass tsunami drill was systematically planned to happen to measure the awareness and participation of local
Sustainable Results
Through this project, the personnel of OPRB and the Regional Disaster Management Board (BPBD) of Ciamis, together with the trainers from BPBD Bantul, are able to repair the damaged repeater nearest to the ones built by the previous GTZ project. A systematic mass tsunami simulation is planned and performed, this is to measure public awareness and local participation in emergency response.
Development of Community-Based Response Management on Disasters (COMRADE) Pangandaran, Ciamis Regency – West JavaDecember 2011-July 2012.
