Banten villagers hit hardest by recent earthquake

Banten villagers hit hardest by recent earthquake

By Wirasti Wiryono

BANTEN, West Java (JP): Monday's earthquake has made life even
harder for many in the remote villages of South Banten district,
Pandeglang regency, as they struggle to get their lives back
together.

Six elementary school buildings and two mosques in the regency
were severely damaged by the quake, creating havoc for teachers,
parents and most of all the children.

Measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, the quake struck at 3:05
p.m. Western Indonesia Time. Its epicenter was 33 kilometers
below the Indian Ocean sea bed, about 300 kilometers southwest of
Jakarta.

Locals said Thursday that the condition of the school
buildings had been bad enough before the earthquake.

But Walidjo, the principal of Cikadu III elementary school,
said 19 sixth-graders had been forced to join 21 fifth-graders in
their classroom because a wall in the sixth-grade classroom had
collapsed. Two large bamboo poles supported another wall.

Walidjo, a native of Yogyakarta, who had taught in the area
since 1976, goes to the school early every morning to make sure
that the 148 students stick to their classes despite the quake.

He said this was not easy because most of the children came
from poor families which often preferred their children to work
in the fields.

Teachers at Sida Mukti elementary school are finding it
particularly difficult to get their class attendences back to
normal because parents fear that another earthquake might destroy
the school.

Piles of rubble lay inside one school building which had large
cracks in its walls. Its doorway had skewed so that the door
would no longer shut properly.

Eight of the school's 61 windows had shattered and were
covered with bamboo lattices.

In Rancasadang village, farmer Ade Wiyadi lamented the
condition of his local mosque which had been reduced to a pile of
rubble.

He pointed to what was left of the roof and said: "We pray in
the mosque's yard, because it's too far to go to another
village's mosque. We need help."

Ade said the villagers were poor and would struggle to buy
cement and roof tiles to rebuild the mosque. He said they had
enough wood, glass and sand.

The ceiling of one of the buildings at the Gadog elementary
school had caved in during the quake. The school's principal Hadi
Waluyo said Thursday that the 192 elementary school students now
crammed into three buildings for morning classes, which 130
junior high school students occupied in the afternoon.

"Fifth-graders come early at 7:20 a.m., 50 fourth-graders come
later in the morning until 12:30, then 130 junior high school
students use the premises from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. or 4:15
p.m.," Hadi said.

He said four teachers taught all the children. One teacher
teaches religion, another takes sports and two teach general
classes.

He told a sad story about a student who was unable to pay the
Rp 500 (US$ 21 cents) monthly school fees, because the parents
could scarcely afford rice. "And the government wants us to help
develop skilled human resources," he said.

"Nevertheless, we allow them to pursue an education without
paying for tuition," he said, adding that he saved money by
buying plastic balls for Rp 3,000 instead of the Rp 60,000 volley
balls that were meant to be used for sport.

In Jakarta, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef)
representative for Indonesia, Stephen J. Woodhouse, yesterday
called for greater government initiative to repair damage in the
southwest of West Java, an area with low family incomes and poor
infrastructure.

Woodhouse said his organization would monitor the area and
pressure the government to ensure that the children there got a
proper education.

He said he would receive a report early next week from
Unicef's Bandung office, which is working in cooperation with the
West Java provincial government to formulate an action plan to
help the children.

Fasli Jalal, the chief of the bureau of religion, education,
culture and sports at the National Development Planning Board,
said yesterday he had received reports of eight elementary
schools that were hard hit by the earthquake.

Fasli said a special relief fund would be provided by the
government after damage reports had been submitted to the
Regional Development Planning Board. He said that Rp 56.6 billion
($23.4 million) of the state budget was to be spent on West Java.

He said Rp 264 billion would be spent this year providing
meals and anti-worm medicine to 7.3 million school children in
poor, rural areas across the country, especially in the Nias,
Riau, Sangir Talaut and Luwuk Banggai island regencies. Last year
only 2.4 million children received this assistance.

Fasli said 49,000 elementary schools would be included in the
program this year.

"This will also help farmers to grow food for a ready market,
namely local school children," he said.