Iin and Irma: Real Survivors of the Sulawesi Quake
That afternoon, grey overcast was blanketing the skies at Anca village in Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia. A young girl was playing joyfully with her friends. They heartily laughed and laughed as if nothing serious has been happening with their tender lives. The right cheek of the young girl, however, was still marred by drying wound.
The girl, Iin Beatrix (4), and her colleagues were playing at the field right next to scores of makeshift tents temporarily erected to accommodate scores of displaced families following the 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocking Sigi district in Central Sulawesi on August 19. Iin’s Anca village in Lindu area was among the hardest-hit by the disaster.
The quake killed five people, injuring around 50 others and destroyed or partly damaged hundreds of houses. Besides Anca village, neighboring Kulawi and Gumbasa villages were also seriously impacted by the tremor.
Iin was asleep in the swing when the quake hit. The walls of her house crumbled. It was fortunate that she only suffered from injury on her cheek. The wound, however, caused a shock to her mother Irma Rema (37) because it gushed out a lot of blood.
“I was terrified that Iin was suffering from very serious injury and that she might die,” recalled Irma. Trembling hard, she quickly held Iin tightly and rushed out of her damaged house to join her neighbors at the nearby field for safety.
“Thank God for His protection that Iin and all of us were safe,” Irma said. She could only treat Iin’s wound with cloth soaked in warm water. Iin suffered from fever a day after the disaster, but she gradually recovered and started smiling again.
Irma lived with her husband, three children, her parents and her sister. They all had to temporarily live at the nearby camp with scores of other families whose houses were heavily damaged.
Every time she returned to see her crumbled house, Irma could only cry in her heart. But, she always reminded herself that she had to be strong and not being overwhelmed by the incident and her misery.
“My family has strong faith in God. We have to move on and accept this hardship,” she said.
She expected that her family’s rice paddy field could yield good harvest soon. The harvest might generate some three millions of rupiah (approximately US$300) which she would use to renovate her house.
“I don’t want to live in the past. I’m looking forward to the future,” she expressed her hope. “I just pray that there would be no more quakes in the coming years.”
Irma’s family was among those receiving World Vision’s family kits and children kits distributed to the displaced families in Anca village on August 26. World Vision cooperates with the Salvation Army in the aid distribution as the organization has strong presence in the area.
World Vision has just initiated an area development program in Sigi district recently. The project officers have been teaming up with the Salvation Army in the effort to help ease the lives of the quake victims.
The wounds from the disaster might still be imprinted at Irma’s heart and Iin’s face for sometime. But they have braced themselves to welcome much brighter years ahead.
Iin has even showed her love for acting. When the camera was focused on her, she quickly put her forefingers on each of her cheeks and cutely smiled…as if the nightmare of the disaster was already something so distance away from her life.