Severe Flooding in Indonesia Tzu Chi
Volunteers Provide Food and Medical Treatment
Great Love News; Pao-chin Kao reporting
from Indonesia. (Translated by Mike Lee, Northern, California)
The most severe flooding in over twenty years
devastated fifteen villages in the western region of the Indonesian
island of Java. Within days, Tzu Chi volunteers delivered boxed
meals and drinking water to flood victims. They also set up
medical treatment stations to ensure the health of the suffering
survivors.
Riding military rubber rafts through the disaster
area, we saw many houses still half submerged. Fallen leaves
clogged the waterway and made travel difficult. Below the raft
were previously lush, green fields of grain. Now, with five
or six days of flooding, the harvests for this season will once
again be ruined.
The one stroke of luck during this misfortune
was that most of the local residents make their living by digging
sand along the river. The boats they ordinarily use for work
are now put to good use in saving family members and belongings.
Indonesian Tzu Chi volunteers were mobilized on the first day
of flooding to deliver drinking water and 1,100 boxed meals
to victims. After that, they prepared over 2,000 meals every
day, in the hope that survivors would not go hungry as they
salvaged their belongings.
After so many days of flooding, health
conditions in the disaster area became horrific. Tzu Chi volunteers
set up treatment stations to provide medical care, so that flood
victims could the pains of waterborne illnesses.
