MENTAWAI (27 April 2023) - The Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) moved quickly to help deal with the impact of the Mentawai earthquake. In line with the direction of the Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini, the front guard of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Disaster Response Volunteers (Tagana) was active immediately after the disaster occurred.


Together with other disaster management elements, Tagana helps evacuate residents, especially vulnerable groups (children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities). Tagana also helped distribute aid to affected communities.


Following up on the direction of the Minister, the Head of the Social Welfare Education and Training Center (BBPPKS) Padang Hasim, immediately instructed his staff to distribute aid to meet the needs of communities affected by the earthquake. "Aid was sent from the Warehouse of BBPPKS Padang, Tuesday (25/04)," said Hasim (27/04).


The MoSA’s aid to help overcome the impact of the disaster in the Mentawai Islands Regency area is worth IDR 199,535,800.


The aid is in the form of 1,000 packages of ready-to-eat food, 800 packages of children's food, 1,000 packages of ready-to-eat side dishes, 48 packages of ready-to-eat fried rice seasonings, 48 packages of ready-to-eat yellow rice seasonings, 40 mattresses, 100 blankets, 100 packages of baby clothing, adult clothing 100 packages.


On Tuesday 25 April 2023, an earthquake occurred in Mentawai, West Sumatra. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded that this earthquake with a magnitude (M) 6.9 had triggered a tsunami. The epicenter of the earthquake was 177 km northwest of the Mentawai Islands at a depth of 23 km.