Reconstructing Yogyakarta

The earthquake that hit Yogyakarta on May 27, 2006 had caused great damages that more than 200,000 houses were broken down, and half of them were level with ground.

Most of the victims that suffered the most are the villagers who come from low-end economy, and are financially incapable to rebuild their normal life on their own.

Besides houses, the earthquake had also impaired public facilities such as schools, religious houses, government bureau, and local government clinics.

Derived from all the facts above, since the second week after the disaster, PT. Mega Andalan Kalasan (mak) had assembled a Working Group known as mak Working Group for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction on Yogayakarta, Post Disaster May 27, 2006.

The idea behind the formation of this Working Group is to carry out whatever action is needed, in proportion to mak’s competency and capacity, to help relieve the suffering of the victims as well as to participate actively in reconstructing Yogyakarta together with the victims.

mak realized that rehabilitating and reconstructing Yogyakarta post disaster is a new, unique thing for anyone to do. So, there is no sufficient reference that can be used as a bench mark.

Therefore, there is no other way than planning a program phase by phase that will be done as we are learning (learning by doing), that one day a comprehensive program, suitable for the society and government program, will be advanced.

Phase 1: Building the Houses
On June 5, 2006, we started to build 1 unit of house for one of our employees whose house was level with ground. A lot of the materials from the destroyed house can be recycled to make the materials needed to build the new house. The owner of the house and the society also participated in helping with the non-technical work. Up to now, there are 20 houses have been built across areas in Yogyakarta.

Phase 2: Building the Public Facilities
Bawuran village, where about 260 houses were ruined, is the location decided for the first project. All the public facilities in that area, including the local government clinic, Mosque (Mushola), as well as house of the head of the village, were heavily damaged. Looking at such condition, mak Working Group started working on June 13, 2006 with the following stages:

1. Building a Temporary Living Cluster
After several discussion with the villagers, it was decided to firstly build a temporary living cluster consisting of:

• 1 (one) 3 x 4m room for office as well as bedroom for the head of the village.
• 8 (eight) 3 x 4m rooms for living space, intended especially for elderly, mothers with babies, children, and people with poor health. Each room was equipped with 3 bunk beds and a 6-compartment locker.
• 2 (two) 2 x 3m rooms for husband-wife consummation.
• 1 (one) 4 x 12m multipurpose room.
• 2 (two) toilets and 2 (two) bathrooms.
• 1 (one) public kitchen.

Total area of the whole building : ±180m2
Total cost : ± IDR 150,000,000,-

The whole cluster had finished and was handed over to people who used to live there on July 6, 2006 with a simple ceremony.

2. Building a Model House
Basically, almost every victim is a non-expert in building house that is durable, economic, practical to build, and proper. Therefore, building a model house, from which people could observe the process, is necessary so that they would have a vivid picture regarding the ‘what’ and ‘how to.’ This model house project was started on July 7, 2006 and handed over to one of the villagers on July 20, 2006 with total cost of IDR 15,000,000,-.

3. Re-building a Mushola (religious house) It was built on July 19, 2006 and handed over to the community together with official ceremony for the local government clinic.

4. Building the Local Government Clinic
The damaged local government clinic resulted in lack of health care services, which were temporarily held in tents after the earthquake. With very few health care services with distant location, it was very difficult for victims, elderly, physically challenged people, and mothers with babies who need the service. Being aware of such situation, on July 24, 2006 mak started building health care facilities:

• 1 room for doctors, nurses, medicine storage, and administration
• 1 general examination room
• 1 dental examination room
• 1 multipurpose room
• Corridor for patients to wait in line
• Medical equipments
• 1 room for doctors to rest and guests

Total building area : ±120m2
Total Cost : ± IDR 200,000,000,-

Most of the medical equipments were donated by mak’s work associates.
The Mushola and Local Government Clinic were handed over on August 14, 2006 through a ceremony, attended by Mrs. Megawati Soekarnoputri, who represented us as a part of community that cares about Yogyakarta May 27, 2006 earthquake victims.

Best wishes,

Director and Staffs
Mega Andalan Kalasan Pte., Ltd.