MUI and zakat agencies map recovery needs for NTT earthquake survivors

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), together with several zakat agencies (LAZ), has begun mapping the medium- and long-term needs of the recovery process for earthquake survivors in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to ensure that assistance is well targeted.

“God willing, our cooperation with these zakat agencies will be continued at the recovery stage. MUI, in this case its disaster management advocacy body, has already sent a two-person assessment team to the field for five days,” said MUI Deputy Secretary-General for Disaster Management Mabroer MS when contacted from Jakarta on Wednesday.

MUI has deployed a number of assessment teams to ensure that the recovery programmes to be carried out by MUI together with the zakat agencies match the needs of communities on the ground.

The results of the assessment will serve as the basis for MUI and the zakat agencies in determining the recovery programmes that are needed and, of course, well targeted.

“They are conducting surveys, carrying out mapping, and will determine what kind of activities or programmes MUI and the zakat agencies will carry out in the future,” he said.

According to him, the disaster in NTT has not only affected people’s homes, but also a number of facilities that have long served as centres of religious and educational activity for the community. One of MUI’s priorities is religious and Islamic education facilities that have suffered damage.

“Whether we will renovate or rebuild the mosques there, because many mosques and prayer rooms, as well as one Islamic boarding school, have been damaged by the earthquake in NTT,” he said.

He stressed that disaster response cannot stop at meeting logistical needs. Restoring community life is a follow-up task that requires collaboration from various parties.

In addition, post-disaster recovery is expected not only to restore the physical condition of the environment, but also to ensure that children can resume their educational activities.

“We hope that the victims can rise again to reorganise their lives, especially that children can return to school as before,” he said.