 | | Volume 9, No. 1 | SPRING 2006 |
 |
|
IOCC rebuilding disaster-affected regions
By Dirk Van Gorp, IOCC-Indonesia
 The construction work on the new health clinic just outside of Gunungsitoli is nearing completion and will be opening in April, 2006. Photo: Dirk Van Gorp, IOCC-Indonesia
Nias Island, Indonesia (IOCC) — One year after the devastating Tsunami and earthquake in Southeast Asia, IOCC and its partners are continuing to provide life-recovery assistance to hundreds of affected families. The Tsunami that hit the northern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004, causing incomprehensible damage and human tragedy, was followed by an earthquake on March 28, 2005 that struck near the small island of Nias southeast of Sumatra destroying 35,000 homes and killing hundreds.
Just outside the main town of Gunungsitoli on the island of Nias, IOCC is working in partnership with the Orthodox Church of Indonesia and the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (OMHKSEA) to construct, equip, and operate a new community health clinic. This will be the first new clinic to open in largely devastated Gunungsitoli.
The new clinic will provide critically needed healthcare services to the families of Gunungsitoli. Staffed by a local doctor and nurses on a daily basis, the clinic will also benefit from visiting doctors and specialists. In addition to financial support for the clinic construction and equipment, IOCC recently shipped a material donation of new medical supplies and equipment valued at more than $300,000 to support this clinic and other health clinics and hospitals in the Tsunami and earthquake affected regions of Indonesia.
IOCC has also partnered with Church World Service — Indonesia (CWS) to provide $450,000 for an integrated village recovery program in Tugala and Desa Fodoro, two small neighboring villages in the Sirombu district of Nias, fifty miles from Gunungsitoli.
The villages’ infrastructure, which was already in poor condition, was left largely destroyed by the earthquake. Through this program, IOCC will address many of the most critical needs, such as the reconstruction of family homes, the rebuilding of water supply systems and sanitation facilities, psycho-social activities, nutrition and feeding programs and livelihood recovery assistance.
The integrated approach of these programs and others in the disaster-affected regions is aimed at helping entire villages rebuild their lives and livelihoods, one family at a time.
|
