Social Affairs Ministry Sends Logistics Aid to Palue Island for NTT Earthquake Victims

The Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) continues to assist earthquake victims in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). One of its efforts involves sending logistics aid to Palue Island, Sikka Regency, by sea.

“Today we have distributed logistics aid using a ferry to Palue Island,” said Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf (Gus Ipul) in a written statement on Monday (17/8/2026).

The aid sent includes 1,000 sacks of 5-kilogram rice, 105 boxes of instant noodles, 100 packages of eggs (20 eggs per package), 1,000 one-litre packs of cooking oil, and 1,000 bottles each of sweet soy sauce and chilli sauce.

Gus Ipul said that during the emergency response period the government is working to meet the basic needs of the community. Kemensos continues to coordinate with regional governments, the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the Indonesian National Armed Forces and Police, and other relevant parties to handle the impact of the natural disaster.

“At present, ensuring the availability of food for affected residents is one of the most important and primary matters,” said Gus Ipul.

In addition to logistics aid, Kemensos is also helping to provide cooking ingredients at community-run kitchens. These community-run kitchens are located across several evacuation sites on Palue Island, such as in family homes or in tents in front of residents’ houses.

“There is community-run kitchen assistance, namely the provision of in-kind supplies. It is called a community-run kitchen because the affected residents do the cooking, not Tagana,” explained Gus Ipul.

“But the ingredients come from Kemensos,” he added.

Overall, Kemensos has established public kitchens in three affected regencies: Manggarai, Sikka and Nagekeo.

Public kitchens are also planned to be set up at three additional locations, namely East Manggarai, West Manggarai and Ende, bringing public kitchen support to six areas. For seven days of public kitchen operations, Kemensos has prepared an indicative budget of around Rp 5.16 billion.

In addition to logistics and food assistance, Kemensos has prepared compensation for the 54 deceased victims of Rp 15 million each, totalling Rp 810 million.

Compensation is also planned for 199 injured victims of Rp 5 million each, totalling Rp 995 million. Distribution will be carried out after the data collection, verification and validation process is completed.