a boy in front of his house

ZOA completes projects in Indonesia

After three years of providing emergency relief and recovery on the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Sulawesi, ZOA is getting ready to leave Indonesia. “Thanks to the dedicated work of the people on the ground, combined with the expertise of ZOA’s emergency relief team, we can look back on a successful aid effort,” says Edwin Visser, ZOA’s chief programme director.

19 November 2021

thousands supported

Relief aid after earthquakes

In August 2018, the island of Lombok was hit by a series of powerful earthquakes that cost hundreds of people their lives, destroyed tens of thousands of houses and left 400,000 people homeless. A month later, the island of Sulawesi was hit by an earthquake that caused a tsunami. Over 4,000 people were killed, more than 14,000 suffered injuries and over 200,000 were left homeless. ZOA sprung into action, providing emergency relief to both Lombok and Sulawesi.

From relief to recovery

ZOA coordinator Willem van Burgsteden flew out soon after and saw the devastation with his own eyes. “The need was enormous. In cooperation with local partners, we distributed food, soap, blankets, tents, hygiene kits and clean drinking water,” he says. Afterward, we focused on building temporary and permanent shelters, psychosocial help for processing trauma and restoring incomes. Think of setting up small businesses or improving agricultural techniques. ZOA helped 52,923 people on Lombok and Sulawesi by providing things like food and farming supplies, clean water, shelter and household goods. In cooperation with local partners, ZOA built 704 houses.

A girl recieves goods at a distribution

Disaster response

Today, every city and village in Indonesia has an emergency plan in accordance with government regulation. In several locations, ZOA helped with the development of these plans and provided training to teams in disaster response. Willem says: ''Now it is time to leave. ZOA was able to fully deploy our expertise in sectors like emergency relief, agriculture, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene). The fantastic result is that, together with our local partners, we could truly help many people. And this was also thanks – last but not least – to the support and commitment of donors, churches, entrepreneurs and funds!”

Willem van Burgsteden, Shelter Specialist

The Indonesian people are strong and resilient. I admire the way they coped with these disasters. Now, it is time for us to leave.

More about ZOA's response to disasters