Working with local partners is essential to Oxfam’s work. Oxfam’s Laura Eldon learns how our partners helped us be the first on the scene of the Sumatra earthquake.

One of the things that has really struck me since I’ve been out in Padang is the importance of Oxfam’s work with local Indonesian organisations. When the earthquake struck here on 30 September, we were able to start distributions of tarpaulins the very next day thanks to the incredible dedication and organisation of our partner ‘Kabisat‘.

“Most of the team were away visiting family for the Eid holiday when the earthquake struck,” explains Rusli, Kabisat’s Logistics Manager. “As soon as we could, we all rushed straight back to Padang. The journey was very difficult. The earthquake had caused landslides which cut off access to some of the roads. Normally it takes me about four hours to drive back, but that day it took me eight hours.”

Because of Padang’s prime location within Indonesia’s ‘ring of fire’, and the high risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, Oxfam and Kabisat had stored several contingency stocks in the event an emergency. Despite their office being damaged in the earthquake and being forced to relocate to their warehouse, the Kabisat staff gathered together the next day to co-ordinate distributions of the tarpaulins they had stored.

“We focused our initial response on the closest areas as communities further away were still completely cut off. On that first day we managed to distribute 150 tarpaulins to use as temporary shelters. So far we’ve distributed a total of 2,500 tarpaulins,” Rusli tells me.

Oxfam’s work with Kabisat is a fantastic example of the benefits of working with local partners. We’ve been working together since 2007 and have had several Kabisat staff seconded to our office over that time to have training on logistics and project management. Thanks to their local knowledge and understanding of the area, we’ve really been able to hit the ground running by being in a position to distribute shelter materials straight away to those most in need.

Oxfam also has informal relationships with five other partners in the area who have been invaluable in helping us respond to this disaster. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Inel, a pregnant staff member of local organisation PKBI, was the only contact we had on the ground with a working mobile connection. Despite the incredibly difficult circumstances, she and her husband drove all the way to the Kabisat office, where we’d been unable to establish direct contact, to physically hand over her phone and ensure that we were able to liaise with them.

Working with such dedicated partners has helped ensure Oxfam was able to make sure aid began reaching those in need as quickly as possible. As Rusli puts it, “we were literally the first on the scene. On that first day no one else was distributing tarpaulins. It wasn’t until nearly a week later that other organisations started coming along.”

As I leave the Kabisat warehouse after talking to Rusli, several shipments of Oxfam buckets and hygiene kits begin to arrive from Oxford. Watching them get unloaded in preparation for the distributions we have planned later in the week, I know they’ll be in safe hands.

Find out more: East Asia Disasters Appeal

Browse Laura’s full Kabisat and Oxfam gallery

Tags: east asia disasters, indonesia, sumatra earthquake

This entry was posted by Laura Eldon on October 20th, 2009 at 1:11 pm and is filed under General, Humanitarian, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.