A Helping Hand from Pekerti’s Buyers and Friends
On Saturday, May 27, 2006, at 5:54 a.m., local time, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the city of Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java.According to final reports, around 5.716 people lost their lives, about 37.927 were injured, and more than 200,000 were displaced.No tsunami was generated. The earthquake has been followed by hundreds of aftershocks. According to reports from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation) between 60 and 80 percent of the buildings in the affected area were damaged; this includes government buildings, schools, hospitals and railway stations, community health clinics etc.
There are scores of Pekerti’s craftsmen living in Yogyakarta and they suffered the impacts of this mighty earthquake. Their livelihoods were in peril. It was impossible to run their production as most of their machinery and homes were severely damaged. This was Pekerti’s primary concern and made Pekerti take immediate action to assist the suffering of our partners living and working conditions.
Besides visiting the affected site and victims Pekerti distributing aid in the forms of food and tents, Pekerti made an effort to communicate the devastating conditions of the producers to its buyers. With help from our buyers, Pekerti was able to accumulate Rp 477.998.267,00. Seventy-four percent of the donations received, Rp 353.274.875, had been spent according to the planned programs and in line with the budget. Thus, there is still a remainder amounted to Rp. 124.723.392,00 or $13.747.04. This figure is still being used to implement subsequent programs.
Pekerti’s mission for the victims was to rebuild homes and re-establish the producers’ business in Yogyakarta as a part of economic recovery program in the aftermath of the earthquake as well as motivating the victims who lost their occupations so that they would be able to restart their business.