BANDUNG REGENCY (September 20, 2024) – After two days of operation, the Ministry of Social Affairs' public kitchen service established at the Kertasari District Office has reached thousands of Bandung Regency residents in five villages affected by the 5.0 SR earthquake.

The Ministry of Social Affairs team consisting of the Disaster Preparedness Cadets (Tagana) team and social assistants went to the field shortly after the earthquake occurred. In the field, they worked together to build refugee tents and activate the field public kitchen service. According to the Bandung Regency Tagana Coordinator, Iyan Mul, the field public kitchen service has been operating since Thursday morning.

The Ministry of Social Affairs' field public kitchen team provided food for affected residents in five villages, namely Cibeureum Village as many as 3,000 packages, Sukasari Village 100 packages, Tarumajaya Village 600 packages, Cikembang Village 1,100 packages, and Cihawuk Village 1,200 packages.

In addition to establishing a public field kitchen, the Ministry of Social Affairs has also established a water kitchen for survivors in evacuation sites. The water kitchen can meet the needs of drinking water, especially hot water ready to drink for survivors. "There is tea, coffee, residents in the evacuation tents can just brew and enjoy hot drinks," said Iyan, Friday (20/9/2024).

Iyan said that the conditions in the evacuation tents were quite cold, reaching temperatures of 13 degrees Celsius at night. This cold temperature can occur considering that the location of the Bandung earthquake evacuation post is in the highlands.

The emergency response period for the Bandung earthquake has been set for two weeks. The team from the Ministry of Social Affairs along with other related parties continue to carry out emergency response efforts and handle the needs of survivors of the Bandung earthquake, especially reaching other survivors who have not been registered.

"We continue to try to conduct psychosocial assessments and tracing of injured victims spread across several villages," said Roni Faisal, Social Worker for Disaster Management at the Directorate of Social Protection for Natural Disaster Victims (PSKBA). (*)