On the night of the Kuta Blast the 12th
of October and the following days literally hundreds of private
persons reacted spontaneously2 and surged forward
to offer their voluntary assistance to the victims, their
families and the authorities dealing with the crisis. They
became active at ground zero - Kuta, the Sanglah hospital,
other hospitals and clinics as well as at the consulates and
the airport in the days to follow. They became volunteer as
an individual, member of an organisation, student of one of
the many educational facilities in Bali, or employee of a
concerned private company. Balinese and other Indonesians
as well as expatriates living in Bali were involved, and people
even flew in from other cities in the country and from abroad
to lend a helping hand.
It is beyond the scope of this presentation to do justice
to the voluntary work and other forms of assistance provided
by numerous outstanding individuals and all organisations
concerned. I just mention in alphabetical order the following
organisations to give an impression what ‘civil society’
in Bali amounted to in those memorable days:
- Bali Hati Foundation
- Bali International Women’s Association (BIWA)
- Bali SOS
- BSS Help Fund
- Crisis Care Foundation
- FDP (Forum Peduli Denpasar)
- Forum Merah Putih
- Friends of Bali Foundation
- Ibu Peduli Bali
- IDEP
- JRKB (Network of volunteers for humanity Bali)
- Lion’s Club Bali
- Parum Samigita (mainly active at Ground Zero, Kuta)
- Rotary Bali (various branches)
- YKIP
- Various church congregations
- hotels, travel agencies, diving companies, food and beverage
import companies, ice factories, food chains and restaurants
A number of national and international NGO's were also involved.
To mention some of them: AUSAID, IMC (International Medical
Corps)3 , International and National (Indonesian)
Red Cross, and Rotary International Crisis.
The assistance by volunteer groups and individual volunteers
at Sanglah Hospital and other hospitals4 encompassed
:
- providing 'musles' and 'brains'. Volunteers worked at
the information desk, hotline, communication centre, crisis
centre, morgue, intake of medicines and other materials,
the Melati ward, café's. Some continued at the combined
hotline/communication and crisis centre at Sanglah hospital
for more than a month.
- giving donations in money or kind (either individually
or through an organisation). Includes those who stepped
forward as blood donor.
- organizing financial, psychological and medical follow-up
assistance to bereaved Indonesian families as well as injured
victims and their families
The focus of this paper will be on recommendations for a
future emergency plan for the Health Sector in Bali from the
point of view of volunteer assistance, which was mainly non-medical
in nature. Therefore I will not mention any recommendations
regarding medical treatment and care5. Hopefully
the recommendations below will also have relevance for other
hospitals operating under similar circumstances. Recommendations
touch upon the general need for better coordination and continue
with suggestions how to improve mechanisms and roles for volunteers
in the various fields they were active in.
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