MERCY Malaysia has completed building temporary shelters and communal toilets for local residents after the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck the town of Palu and Donggala regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The temporary shelters were planned and built within a master planned area which also include communal infrastructure such as WASH facilities, community centre, temporary school, a small mosque, a child friendly space and others.
The earthquake and tsunami also left many local communities emotionally and psychologically affected. In the second week of the disaster, MERCY Malaysia deployed a psychosocial teams, that started child friendly space activities for children affected by the disasters. To date, children and families are experiencing its positive outcome from the initiatives as they are more highly spirited in working together to rebuild their life after the disaster.
MERCY Malaysia is currently working to raise sufficient funds to build up to 1,000 transit shelters to provide comfortable living spaces for affected families in the next 1-2 years or until their homes are built. Other projects down the pipeline include reconstruction of elementary schools and trainings that will focus on the approach of building back better for the local government and communities of Palu.
