In the past days, the news has been full of accounts about the terrible earthquake and tsunami that hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on 28 September. A major disaster with a confirmed death toll of many hundreds and rising daily, with some people saying it may well reach thousands. Help will be needed for people to start to rebuild their lives. And many children will likely be separated from their parents and other relatives, either permanently or temporarily.
This brings back to mind the situation in Indonesia when a massive tsunami struck in December 2004. And it rings major warning bells: what happened in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami must not be repeated this time, for the sake of the children.
After the 2004 tsunami ‘orphanages’ and residential childcare institutions popped out of the ground like mushrooms, in Indonesia. Some were run by people who really thought that the children had nowhere else to go and needed to be taken in to be kept off the street, some were run by people who realised that a lot of foreign money was going to come in, to help the most vulnerable, and that being in charge of an ‘orphanage’ was an effective way of getting a cut of that money.
In either case, not much of an effort was made to try to locate relatives of children to return them to their families, or to find ways to place children in other family-like situations, while they were waiting to be reunited with their families. In some cases, there was no need to go look for families, because the families themselves would come to offer the children at ‘orphanages’. The tsunami had ruined their business, their source of income, their homes, and they did not know how to feed their children. No alternatives were available to these parents, who just wanted their child to have the best chance of survival.
The thing is that in 2005 international NGOs were able to trace the families for the vast majority of the children they came in contact with. So, in fact, most of these children did have relatives to look after them, they were just temporarily separated by the chaos. And instead of taking children away from their families to feed them, it is entirely possible – and much cheaper – to feed the children IN their families.
What keeps running through my mind on seeing the reporting on the current tsunami, is that we need to learn the lessons from what happened in 2004-2005 and we need to learn them fast. Otherwise there are likely to be hundreds of children who end up being separated from their families for far longer than is necessary and in less than ideal circumstances.
So, by all means, please do give to help the people of Sulawesi rebuild their lives again after this disaster. However, do so with consideration of what kind of aid will be of help and what kind of aid will end up causing harm.
Do not go over there to start a new ‘orphanage’, do not send money to people running ‘orphanages’ or other residential childcare institutions, because that will only end up harming the children. Instead, give money or (if you have the skills and expertise) go over and start up a building programme, to make sure that people and particularly families will have a safe place to live again. Give money to programmes providing food for those how experience serious food insecurity. Give money to organisations like the International Red Cross/Red Crescent that organise tracing of families, to make sure children get to return to their family. Support micro-finance projects that help people get back on their feet, and restart their businesses, so that they can start to provide for themselves and their families again.
These are all constructive ways to make a positive difference for the people and particularly for the children of Sulawesi. Supporting having children put in institutions is not. Think about it and do the right thing!
Please share this post, to help make more people aware.
