BADUY, BANTEN (November 2, 2019) - After distributing social life assistance for victims of the Sunda Strait tsunami disaster, on the same day, Director General of Social Protection and Security, Harry Hikmat, accompanied by the Director of Social Protection for Natural Disaster Victims (PSKBA), Rachmat Koesnadi visited Baduy.

The visit was carried out in connection with the fire disaster that had struck several points at this location in the middle of September.

Witnessed by the Head of the Lebak Social Service, Eka Dharmana, and the local Jaro (Head of Village), Saija, the Ministry of Social Affairs symbolically handed over aids to three victims from 57 families whose houses were burned in Kadu Gede, Kanekes Village, Leuwi Damar District, Lebak Regency, Banten.

The amount of aids distributed reached 1.45 billion rupiah with the allocation of building materials and aids for the contents of temporary shelter to 52 housing units, in which each of them got 25 million rupiah and 3 million rupiah.

Besides, the Ministry of Social Affairs also provided a package containing the needs of nine basic food items (groceries) to 40 residents of Kadu Gede. Harry also specifically gave a package containing kinds of medicines received by Jaro.

According to Harry, he was proud to see the so-fast-progress of the house construction that were burned in Baduy. This is proof that they uphold mutual cooperation, even when a disaster strikes.

"We are very proud to see the progress of house reconstruction. It starts from the first time the fires occurred, there was a very fast effort from residents to make temporary shelters, on how to build a house with a tarpaulin roof for a while until the house was built. And it was very fast compared to the same thing happened in other areas. So, this is the evidence of an extraordinary mutual cooperation from Kadu Gede", said Harry.

Harry was impressed by the mutual cooperation attitude of Baduy people have. He wanted this attitude could become a model for all Indonesian people.

"How great is the mutual cooperation, connection, relationship and solidarity of the Baduy people. Let's keep them up together because this is a very good tradition. It can even become a great power to advance the Baduy community itself", said Harry.

Hopefully, Harry continued, this mutual cooperation can be an example for other communities, not only in Banten, but throughout Indonesia.

Furthermore, Harry said that the government wanted to ensure assistance was channeled directly through the bank account to the person concerned.

Harry hopes, with the speed of the construction of the house, the residents of Kadu Gede can occupy a more comfortable place to live than before so that residents can get back to their normal activities.

In addition to giving aid, on this occasion, the Director General and his team also took the opportunity to review the progress of all houses in the area of Kadu Gede, Kanekes Village, which is in the Outer Baduy area.

This village suffered fires on 12 September. This incident caused 38 houses and 75 rice barns burned.

Omo, the Head of the Kadu Gede whose house was also burned said that he lost all his belongings, including 35 sacks of rice and Baduy traditional clothes which had great value for him. However, the assistance coming from the Ministry of Social Affairs is helpful enough.

"From the Ministry of Social Affairs, alhamdulillah, it is given in the form of money for building 25 million to rebuild houses which are now in the process. Some have reached 80 percent, even some of them have been completed. Then, for shelters, we are given 3 million. It is used to buy household tools, from plates to basins", said Omo.

Meanwhile, Director of Social Protection for Social Disaster Victims (PSKBS), M. Syafii Nasution, had the opportunity to visit the location of the burned houses on the next day, Sunday (11/3) accompanied by a number of Tagana personnels from Lebak.

During his visit, Syafii intended to conduct a preliminary survey if the Minister of Social Affairs, in the future, will be scheduled to visit the affected location of fires in order to monitor the progress of rebuilding the Baduy's houses.