A girl with her new school bag

In the Garut District in South Java, Plan has set up and distributed materials for 40 temporary schools. We have also handed out school kits to 3,600 children.

Fitri seemed like a quiet girl when we first met her, but once she started talking about the earthquake that hit her house in Garut, southern Java, on September 2nd, she became very animated, lost in her own tales.

“I can clearly recall the evening the earthquake hit. My mother and I were cooking in the kitchen. My father was out in a fish pond. He shouted for us to get out of the house,” she said.

“But some roof tiles fell on my mother’s leg on our way out. We also forgot to turn off the burner, so my father got in, but then he stepped on the glass shattered on the floor and hurt himself.”

Like her neighbouring friends, Fitri slept outside the house for 3 nights. “We slept outside near the street. When trucks and busses passed by I always woke up scared, thinking it was another earthquake.”

The memory of the massive quake was disturbing her nights during the first week after it happened. It doesn’t help that there have been a series of aftershocks since. Understandably, she was afraid of returning to school, where she would have to study in a cracked building.

New school kits encourage children to go back to school

3,600 students have received school kits from Plan

Fitri’s school is one of the 40 affected elementary schools in 4 sub-districts Plan has been assisting. We have set up 160 bamboo-framed temporary classroom tents to keep children safe from falling debris, and the worst possibility of all, from another earthquake, which could easily bring down the already fragile buildings.

“I am happy to get a school bag along with books, colour pencils, an eraser and a drawing book,” said Fitri. “This gift makes me want to go to school again.”

Fitri’s classmate, Irma, was suffering from typhoid when the earthquake hit her village but it was her mother she was worried about.

“My mother had a stroke a year ago and could not help herself out of the house. It happened so quickly. There were only the two of us but in the end we managed it,” said Irma, whose father manufactures ceramics in another town, a 6 hour-drive from her village. He returns home 3 times a year.

Trying not to cry she said, “I want to be a doctor some day to cure my mother.”

She also thanked Plan for the school kit and temporary classroom, which enabled her to continue her study.

Fitri and Irma are among the 3,600 student beneficiaries who have received school kits from Plan and are now back at school.

*Children’s names have been changed.

Plan does not currently have sponsored children or programme units in the affected areas. All work will be closely co-ordinated with the national disaster management agency and other international non-governmental organisations.