2 October 2009

A World Vision relief convoy of seven trucks carrying emergency survival kits and desperately needed food and clean water is on its way to the earthquake-ravaged West Sumatra.

“There’s no electricity, there’s no running water,” said Enda Balina, the agency’s emergency communications officer in Indonesia, speaking from the centre of Padang.

The convoy is also bringing play equipment for children, enabling World Vision to establish within two days Child Friendly Spaces where children can play and recover safely amidst the chaos following the earthquakes.

Many children in Padang have been badly affected. Balina said the upper floors of one local school had collapsed, trapping several children and teachers in stairwells and classrooms. “One boy I met who survived said he felt tossed around like a kite,” she said.

Padang appears to be the hardest hit of the many Indonesian communities rocked by earthquakes Wednesday and Thursday. The United Nations estimated nearly 400 are dead in Padang, and more than 1,100 throughout the nation.