Volunteers Bring Hope to Quake Survivors
Every Sunday morning at 8, Martinus and 40 other men from Tambakrejo village in Indonesia climb into the bed of a truck with standing room only.
With wheelbarrows and tools at their feet, the men, ages 15 to 70, find a sturdy shoulder to hold and brace themselves for the 15-mile drive to communities damaged by Yogyakarta’s recent 6.3-magnitude earthquake.
Martinus prepares tool kits volunteers will use to help clean up damaged villages.
These men don't work all day in the heat for an hourly wage. They work for the satisfaction of helping their neighbors. In Javanese, this spirit of solidarity is referred to as gotong royong, or mutual cooperation.
According to one villager, "Gotong royong was planted in our hearts in childhood."
Some days the volunteers spend hours chiseling away at boulders. Other days they salvage materials from mosques, schools and houses. One volunteer observed that some survivors are still too traumatized to climb ladders, fearful that an aftershock will send them to the ground.
So, the volunteers climb for them. They work without complaint and are happy to respond to the communities' requests — whatever these may be.
Even more important than the physical labor they provide is the encouragement and support they share with survivors.
New Hope
"Some feel hopeless about their current situation," says Valentinus Irawan, who mobilized the volunteers. "We are giving them new hope."
Just two days after the earthquake, Valentinus, with his wife and a few close friends founded Shelters of Hope, a community-based volunteer organization. Through their efforts, the villages of Tambakrejo, Pangukan, Kentungan and Wonkerso manage the work of 200 volunteers a week, plus the tools, food and supplies volunteers need to help survivors in heavily damaged areas.
Martinus and volunteers from Tambakrejo village in Yogyakarta load a truck with tools they need for a long day of clearing rubble.
CRS assists Shelters of Hope with essential clean-up tools, including shovels, sledgehammers and crowbars. Encouraging community cooperation will be central to future CRS livelihood and rehabilitation projects.
With 300,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged, 1,200 schools to be rebuilt, thousands of clinics and public buildings in need of major reconstruction and 100,000 jobs lost, the recovery of Yogyakarta will require tremendous teamwork.
Help From the Heart
When asked for how long the volunteers will assist, Martinus responds, "Until everything is cleaned up. And then we'll help build."
Although their efforts are noble, these volunteers want only to be considered friends who happen to be more fortunate. The earthquake survivors have many friends, indeed, as every morning dozens of trucks line the highways, filled with volunteers like the men from Tambakrejo who sacrifice their daily wages and time with their own families to help friends they have never met.
But for Valentinus, helping one another is not a sacrifice — it is an extension of the Javanese culture, "Wanting to help each other just comes from our hearts."
