Hundreds still in refugee camps

Almost three months after the tsunami which hit the Indonesian Mentawai Islands, hundreds of people still live in refugee camps. They are supported by the Christian-Protestant Church of Mentawai (GKPM), which also cares for more than a hundred children, which have lost their parents in the tsunami. Yesterday Dr Fidon Mwombeki, General Secretary of the UEM, visited the GKPM and the refugee camp. He was shakened by the experience, he said: „It is devastating and difficult to imagine how you go through all of this.“

The refugees now wait for new homes to be built by the goverment in safer areas in the middle of the islands. But this will take time, and even when the new villages are ready, the people have to change their lifes completely: Many of them used to be fishermen and now have to become farmers.

Mr Mwombeki lay strength upon UEM’s solidarity with GKPM and promised to support the church. Directly after the tsunami the UEM and several of its member churches in Germany and Indonesia had supported the emergency relief operations financially with more than € 30,000. Mr Mwombeki also was able to give the news that students of  theology from the PTT Sundermann on Nias island have collected 1.200.000 Rupiahs (more than 1000 Euro) for the GKPM’s work with refugees. The GKPM welcomes the support. They now even have plans for building a boarding school for the tsunami orphans.