PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa Provides Psychosocial Support For Earthquake Survivors Cianjur

A team from PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa visited the location of the Cianjur earthquake to directly provide assistance to affected residents. (IST)

JAKARTA - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 has rocked Cianjur Regency, West Java on November 21, 2022. The natural disaster triggered by the shift in the new fault Cugenang Security caused various damage, ranging from the destruction of thousands of buildings to hundreds of people who died. Various forms of assistance are of course needed by survivors of this disaster.

Until now, Cianjur is still trying to recover with the construction process of housing for residents affected by the earthquake. Therefore, logistical assistance is still needed to support the survival of the residents who are survivors of this disaster. On December 19, 2022, PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa visited the disaster site to directly provide assistance to survivors of the Cianjur earthquake.

There are two villages from Cugenang District visited, namely Benjot Village and Nagrak Village. These two villages have suffered damage which is quite severe due to the natural disaster. Hundreds of houses were damaged, thus requiring them to stay in refugee tents.

The arrival of PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa to the disaster site received a warm welcome from the residents, which of course made the volunteers feel touched. Moreover, currently the arrival of volunteers to provide assistance has greatly decreased. Meanwhile, there are still many residents who live in refugee camps and need logistical assistance, both in the form of food and clothing assistance. The process of building residents' residences, which is currently still ongoing, requires residents to stay in refugee tents.

Since the disaster, logistical support for the affected survivors has continued to flow, although currently there has been a lot of decline. Not only support in the form of logistics, other forms of mental support are also needed by survivors. It is no secret that this disaster certainly leaves deep trauma for the affected residents. With this background, the arrival of PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa to the disaster site focuses on providing trauma healing or psychosocial to survivors, especially for children.

The earthquake disaster occurred at 13.21 WIB, where the majority of children were in school to study. This condition resulted in many children being survivors of this disaster. In addition to physical trauma, due to injuries hit by debris or while trying to save themselves, children also experience psychological trauma due to these unexpected incidents to the possibility of losing friends, parents, or other close people.

Trauma healing or psychosocial activities are certainly one of the activities needed to help children who survive disasters can overcome their trauma. The hope is that with this activity, children can go through the process of recovering emotions from fear due to this disaster, so that they can grow well without a shadow of fear of disaster.

Trauma healing or psychosocial is a very important issue after a disaster. Moreover, currently public awareness of mental health is increasing. Survivors of natural disasters must have trauma or fear that arises as a result of the disaster. So, they need support in order to recover mentally.

In addition to paying attention to the physical recovery and facilities due to the earthquake that occurred, mental recovery also needs to be a concern. Because logistical assistance has been in the spotlight of other volunteers, PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa tries to highlight other aspects that are no less important, namely trauma healing or psychosocial assistance.

During the visit of the two villages, PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa carried out a number of psychosocial activities as an effort to trauma healing. The series of activities carried out included drawing and playing together. The volunteer team also taught a song about how to protect yourself during an earthquake. This song contains simple guidelines on how to protect yourself when an earthquake occurs. Through this song, it is hoped that children can learn about the basic provisions of self-protection more comfortably and comfortably.

This series of trauma healing activities went very smoothly, because the children participated in activities with great enthusiasm. Not only playing together, the volunteer team PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa also prepared 50 parcels containing stationery and snacks to be distributed to children who survived the disaster. It is hoped that the parcels given can be entertaining for children in difficult times after the Cianjur earthquake.

In addition to social activities in the form of trauma healing or psychosocial, PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa also provided logistical assistance in the form of rice and instant noodles to help meet the food needs of survivors. Assistance in the form of suitable clothes to be given to survivors in the two villages. Currently, there are still many residents who live in emergency tents to evacuate, because they are waiting for the rebuilding of their residence.

Assistance in the form of food and clothing is still very much needed, considering that many residents have lost their livelihoods due to this earthquake disaster. The hope is that logistical assistance from volunteers will continue to flow to help survive and ease the difficulties of the residents in the evacuation.

This social activity carried out by PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa is a manifestation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social responsibility as to the community. Although the time the volunteer team spent with children and disaster survivors is quite short, it is hoped that the presence of a volunteer team from PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa can slightly ease the residents' difficulties and help treat the trauma of children after the disaster.

PT Alton Yogantara Perkasa is also very grateful for the warm welcome of the residents and their enthusiasm to participate in this activity, so that it can be carried out smoothly. Hopefully it can be a sweet and entertaining memory in the middle of the recovery process after the Cianjur earthquake. (ADV)