"Handayani" Children's Center Deploys LDP Team to Landslide Location in Sumedang

SUMEDANG (January 12, 2021) - Since last Sunday (10/1) the Psychosocial Support Service Team of Balai Anak "Handayani" has gone to Cihanjuang Village, Cimanggung District, Sumedang Regency to respond to a landslide that caused at least 14 houses to be buried.

Acting Head of Balai, Sulistya Ariadhi, said that his party received the direction of the Director of Child Social Rehabilitation to immediately respond and provide assistance to children affected by the disaster.

"We immediately responded to the Director's direction to go down to Sumedang. So the incident was Saturday afternoon (9/1), on Sunday we went straight to the field and immediately joined the other Ministry of Social Teams," said Sulistya.

According to Sulistya Ariadhi, there were 5 team members who were assigned, and 3 of them were Social Workers.

"Our social workers immediately carried out psychosocial assessments and needs assessments for children affected by landslides. So far, we have conducted assessments on 30 children," he explained.

The assessment is carried out one by one from house to house. This was done because of the pandemic situation which made it impossible to create a crowd.

Currently, continued Sulistya, the victims are at relatives' homes and some are at the Al Falah TKA/TPA which is the disaster post.

Regarding the results of the assessment, Social Worker, Maria Josefin, said that at this time the children were in a state of fear and worry about another landslide.

"As reported, there were three aftershocks of landslides. This made the children feel afraid and did not feel safe. They were worried that landslides would happen again," said Maria.

In addition, according to Maria, children also feel worried about their future. This is because some children lost their parents because they were victims of landslides.

"So there are children who lose their fathers. As a result, children feel worried about what their future will be," she explained.

Even so, Maria said that Balai had coordinated with the Sumedang Social Work Unit and the Child Welfare Institution (LKSA) so that children were given assistance.

Meanwhile, the results of the needs assessment show that currently children need nutrition such as milk, baby food, diapers, and stationery for children who are already in school.

Following up on the results of the assessment, "Handayani" Children's Center immediately provided assistance according to the needs of the child. The assistance was handed over directly by the Acting Head of the "Handayani" Children's Center in Jakarta to the children and families of the victims.

The provision of this assistance was carried out in collaboration with the Head of Service and Social Rehabilitation of the Social Office for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection in Sumedang Yayat MTH and also LKSA Bening Nurani, represented by Enrico Pradana.