Ministry of Social Affairs Reaches Persons with Disabilities, Seroja Cyclone Disaster Survivors in East Sumba

Writer :

Humas Ditjen Rehabilitasi Sosial

Editor :

Annisa YH

Translator :

Karlina Irsalyana

WAINGAPU (30 April 2021) - On the third day of monitoring the handling of natural disasters due to Cyclone Seroja, the Director General of Social Rehabilitation of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Harry Hikmat visited several houses of residents of the Cyclone Seroja disaster in Temu Village and Kuta Village, Kanatang District. Most of the residents' houses were badly damaged, even flattened to the ground. They currently live with their family or relatives, neighbors, and some even hold emergency tents near their homes.

One of them is Martinus Dominggus PA's family, who live temporarily in a makeshift tent in their yard in Kuta Village, Kanatang District. Dominggus' house flattened to the ground swept away by strong winds. Dominggus has 2 children, where the second daughter, Aprilia Meitri (21 years) is a person with multiple disabilities (physical, hearing sensory speech, and low vision).

According to Dominggus, his daughter was born normally with the help of the village midwife. However, at the age of 1.8 years, she had fallen and hit the back of the head. Since then, she is often fussy, her tongue is not like a normal child and her fingers are difficult to straighten. Until the age of 2.2 years, her condition did not improve. Finally, she checked Aprilia into a local health care facility. From the results of the examination, it was found that there was a nerve disorder in the head. This has influenced the growth and development of Aprilia to date.

Dominggus and his wife could only surrender to this condition, and tried to take care of their daughter as well as possible, because they believed that the child was entrusted by God that they had to take care of.

Dominggus works daily as a fish seller, while his wife is a housewife, sometimes working as a farm laborer. However, this did not dampen his enthusiasm to provide the best education for his children. It was proven that his first child has currently completed his undergraduate degree (S1) majoring in Public Health at the Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga.

According to the East Sumba Social Rehabilitation Companion, Mikel Presty Carlo Moata, his party, and the East Sumba Social Service since 2015 have assisted Aprilia and her family. The Social Service tried to refer to the Center for Disabilities in East Sumba. However, Dominggus was not willing and wanted to continue to nurture and care for Aprilia in a family environment.

Aprilia's daily activities depend very much on the help of others, such as the need for eating, drinking, bathing, defecating, and others. Aprilia also has frequent seizures, so it requires regular monthly medication. However, sometimes Aprilia can still respond when asked to joke, she can even sing and dance.

Mikel, the Social Rehabilitation Companion often accompanies Aprilia to the local Puskesmas (Community Health Center) or delivers medicines to Aprilia's house. Mikel also collaborated with the Bakti Luhur Social Welfare Institution (LKS), the Wali Ati Foundation, purity parties and other parties to provide care and empowerment for the Aprilia family.

Mikel together with LKS provide family strengthening by teaching knowledge about ways of caring for children with disabilities, forming peer support groups and other activities to improve the ability of families and the surrounding environment in caring for persons with disabilities and providing health services. Currently, there are Village Health Workers who regularly visit Dominggus' house to provide health services.

Dominggus was also the first Covid-19 patient in East Sumba, he got it from his son who returned from Salatiga. They underwent quarantine and isolation for 14 days at the Kambaniru Community Health Center. They are on the list of recipients of Covid-19 assistance from the East Sumba Regional Government.

Her mother, Elizabeth Danga, actually hopes that in the future Aprilia will be able to empower herself, be able to take care of herself. However, this has not been communicated to other family members.

Under these conditions, the Director General of Social Rehabilitation ordered his staff to carry out further assessments and to approach and reinforce Aprilia's parents that their children have the opportunity and potential to be able to carry out activities on their own. In the future, the results of the assessment will determine the exact service requirements for Aprilia.

During this review, the Director General for Social Rehabilitation handed over a package of assistance from the Ministry of Social Affairs to Dominggus' family. The aid packages handed over to each head of the family were in the form of basic food packages (rice, eggs, cooking oil, biscuits, sugar, coffee, tea, instant noodles), mattresses, food ware, and rolled tents.

"This is a mandate from the Minister of Social Affairs, Tri Rismaharini to be conveyed to the residents of the disaster victims. Hopefully, this aid package is useful and can ease the burden caused by this disaster. "Be strong, God bless you and your family," said Harry Hikmat.

2021-05-01
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