Helping Victims Affected by Floods in Bima, Social Pillars Do Cooperate Each Other

BIMA REGENCY (April 6, 2021) - The floods that hit Bima Regency, Nusa Tenggara Barat, have awakened the spirit of mutual cooperation for all parties, including the social pillars, including the Disaster Voluntary Workers (Tagana), Pioneers of Peace and Human Resources (HR) of the Family Hope Program (PKH).

Tagana opened a public kitchen and helped evacuate victims, Pioneers of Peace provided psychosocial support services to vulnerable groups and provided counseling to families whose family members had died, while PKH HR conducted data collection on affected Beneficiaries (KPM) to ensure there were no problems when disbursing aid and also distributed food to flood-affected locations.

"In a day, the Tagana public kitchen is able to prepare 10,000 portions of food which are distributed to flood victims who are still struggling to clean up the remains of mud in their homes, as well as those who have fled to their family homes because their homes were damaged by the floods," said the Head of the Tagana Communication Forum. NTB Province Dedi, Tuesday (6/4).

Dedi said, at least, there were 200 Tagana involved in the field soup kitchen. They, the majority of whom came from Bima City, Sumbawa Regency, and Bima Regency, worked together to lighten the burden of the flood victims.

After the working visit of the Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini in Bima Regency on Monday (5/4), Tagana, PKH Pioneer of Peace and HR, seemed to have received full support in carrying out their duties.

Meanwhile, the Bima District PKH Coordinator, Muhammad Yasin, said from PKH HR elements, had collected data on PKH KPM and helped distribute packaged rice to flood victims.

"From the results of temporary data collection, there are 1,455 PKH KPM and 18 PKH HR affected. On average, their savings books and ATM cards are lost in the floods," said Yasin.

We will coordinate with the Social Service and channeling banks to immediately replace ATMs and savings books, bearing in mind that Phase II of PKH assistance has been disbursed this month (April).

"Don't let them be constrained in disbursing aid," said Yasin.

As reported, rain that fell for approximately 9 hours since Saturday (3/4) throughout Bima Regency, NTB, caused dams in four sub-districts to overflow, inundating rice fields and residents' housing.

The results of the psychosocial assessment of the survivors conducted by Pioneer of Peace on the psychological condition showed that most of the residents felt devastated and lost by the disaster that hit their area of ​​residence.

"The average resident, whose paddy field area was submerged in water, felt devastated because they had to experience a crop failure after the rice which was ready to be harvested was also flooded. Meanwhile, there are fears that the paddy that has been saved will rot because it does not get the sun's heat in the next few days," said the Support Service Team from the Pioneers of Peace element, Roni Faisal.

The Pioneers of Peace Team also visited the families of late victims as a result of being swept away by the current, to provide psychological reinforcement. One of them, was experienced by Mrs. Suhada, the wife of the dead victim, A. Bakar.

“The first time we visited, Mrs. Suhada was still very sad, in shock, and devastated. She looks confused, about what should she do (to live her next life, without her husband). Because from the information we got, her husband is the backbone of the family, and she has three children going to school who still have to pay for their education," said Roni.

With the approach and assistance provided by Pioneers of Peace, slowly Suhada began to open up and want to tell stories. She began to hope and want to forget what happened to her.

“What about the children if I am always sad, feeling down, and sick? I think about the children, I feel sorry for them. I have to be healthy, I have to be strong for them. That was he (A. Bakar) once told me," he said while wiping the tears that occasionally flowed from the corners of her eyes.