Our most recent trip to Indonesia to help the victims of the earthquake disaster was certainly an eye opener although it is amazing to be able to get stuck in and give so much help. It was your donations that helped us to make such a significant and positive change in these people's lives.

When we arrived

Three of us arrived in Jakarta in the evening and couldn't get a flight into Padang untill the next morning. I am with Kylee the General Manager of CCORP and also Churlya a client who also happens to be Indonesian - we have done volunteer work together before.

So we stayed with a friend of Churlyas who is a very wealthy local business man. We wentback to his house, which is more like a palatial mansion that you could find in the deserts of Dubai - it seemed so out of place in the hustle and bustle of busy Jakarta. He has more than 6 maids and as soon as we walked into the house we were not allowed to lift a finger for anything, very strange lifestyle. But this man was extremely generous. He donated a lot of goods for us to take to Padang with us and stopped at nothing to help however he could. He also arranged for someone to meet us at the airport in Padang.

That night we slept in his daughters rooms - this room could house a whole family!

Reaching Padang

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to fly to Padang. The plane was full of government officials and family members who all had a story to tell. When we arrived we were picked up by Hardo, a local who himself is still traumatised and frightened by the earthquake but wanting to help in anyway that he can.

He picked us up in a silver car that he had borrowed from a friend of a friend, it had been partially crushed in the earthquake and he had to fix the engine. It can not go any faster than 35kph and it leaks a potent petrol smell that left me dizzy after just 10 minutes.

Our driver had organized for us to stay in a house of his friends, in an old village on the outskirts of the mountains. An old blue wooden hut that had been built about 30 years ago and had an interesting charm. We were led to our beds, a wooden floor with grass mats and feral cats and dogs roaming freely about. This will do and is a lot better than what hundreds of thousands of local are sleeping in right now. We dumped our stuff and within 2 minutes we had arrived and left to see how we could help.

Reality hits as we see the path of devastation all around us- Time to get stuck in

We drove into the heart of China town which is the worst effect area in downtown Padang. I noticed an old junk yard that had tents errected and many banners hanging. We stopped and walked in to find out what was needed and how we could help. It was a medical supplies team and they caught us up on everything that was happening.

We explained that we are here to help in anyway possible and they mentioned that there is another place that needs a lot more help. One of the doctors said he would take us there, as we walked out we ran into a group of official looking people. We stopped to talk and got chatting - I talked and Churlya translates! We then realized that we had actually met years ago in Medan, Indonesia during the Tsunami disaster when we had worked together in hospitals and schools. They are the leaders of the local Padang university and said that they would like our help - in Medan, years ago they had attended a seminar I helped put together on trauma relief and they said the training had helped them so much that they would like their university students and faculty here to now learn. We exchanged numbers and said we would catch up the next day and organize something.

We then drove to a huge Chinese temple with the doctor we had just met, as we drive you can see rubble and destruction everywhere. I have seen the after effects of many, many earthquakes and even experience a few but the damage caused by the earth moving never ceases to amaze me. The doctor . took us inside, we were asked to sit. The locals are very hospitable, as soon as we arrive they are offering water, juice and food. We take it not wanting to be rude, but we really don't want it.

A senior doctor and member of the temple then greets us, I explain that we are here to help and we can offer trauma relief or any other help that they may need. He offers to show us the destruction of temple - I can feel he want to explain and show someone what he has experienced and we oblige. He take us through a labrynth of halls and rooms through the brightly decorated temples. Some parts are still standing and wholly untouched, in others areas tiles have fallen off, concrete walls and floors have cracks meters long and up to 50cm wide leaving dangerous holes everywhere. Pillars have crushed and taken with them the floor above that they were holding up. There are boxes of food, water and aid EVERYWHERE. This is a local distribution point for the local Chinese community.

We are led out the back and into the clinic that the temple runs. Well it was a clinic. It is now a complete rubble and totally unrecognizable. The whole thing is completely crushed like a giant has stepped on every inch of the roof until the whole building collapsed. He crouches and points into the rubble to show us his car which is now just crushed metal, he leads us around the side and points out the ambulance which is also now destroyed. He stops and looks at us and pleads for any help. He explains that all his doctors have either fled to villages to help their families, or themselves are dead or too traumatised to do anything.

We have seen enough and we just want to get started. He says he wants us to meet one more person, the boss of the temple. We sit down with him and explain who we are and that we want to help. I show him pictures of other volunteer trips we have done so he knows we are professional volunteers and can help. He thanks us for coming and asks us to get started straight away.

A group has started to form around us including injured and traumatised who have had absolutely no treatment. We set up make shift tables and begin assisting. A line starts to form and people are eager for any help or chance to talk to someone about what has happened to them. We stay here for hours, until we have helped every single person. They plead with us to come back the next day, saying that they will bring their families and friends from the villages. We promise to come back.

Being white - and two of us blonde - we stand out from the tanned and dark haired locals. People often stand and stare, or come over and say hello. They are extremely friendly and we speak to anyone and everyone - always asking how we can help and what they need us to do. We are told of a local hospital where help is needed, we make our way there.

Only $15 SAVED this guy’s life!!

As we walk into the hospital, we notice a lady out the front crying uncontrollably while cradling her baby, we start to talk to her and discover that her brother is lying inside the hospital on the other side of the wall, in traumatic and unstable condition.

The doctors need to operate on him urgently but they can not as he would lose too much blood and they have no replacement blood. The sister must buy the blood herself – but she has absolutely no money. She has several kids and her husband can not find work. She can not afford to buy the blood to save her brothers life. It is 125,000 rupiah - $15 Australian Dollars. I’m shocked to hear that just $15 could literally mean the difference of a human life – this isn’t a random life or statistic, this is the brother of the lady standing right in front of me, the father of the kids waiting confused just meters from me, an uncle, a son. There is not a chance I am leaving without making sure those doctors have every drop of blood they need to do the operation. I get the blood request forms from the doctor and head straight to the blood bank. The sister continues to sob heavily and every few minutes she wails out-loud, she speaks Indonesian and I don’t know what she is saying. But her pain and grief doesn’t need to be translated. I understand completely. The blood bank has been destroyed from the earthquake and a large tent now serves its purpose. I walk into the blood bank and see several refrigerators full of bags of different colored bloods. There are also needles and capsules full of blood. It looks so eery and haunting. I sign the papers, hand over the money and we have our blood.

We give it to the doctors and they say they will now operate, we are told that this does not guarantee anything but his chances are now much better. A couple of days later when we visit the hospital we are told that he survived the operation and is now stable. I can’t help but think, what a strange world it is that I walked into that hospital at that moment, as the sister stood there crying. And how powerful it can be to simply ask someone “what is wrong, can I help?”. I can safely say that is the best $15 I have ever spent in my life and I will never, ever forget it. To anyone that donated to CFoundation for this trip, thank-you SO much. If you would still like to help, these people need it. CLICK HERE to donate $15 or even $1500. It could literally save a life.

There are so many stories like this from the last 5 days, it’s hard to put every moment into words.

Filthy conditions

When we went into the hospital we were led into the wards that were full of earthquake victims. Imagine the worst emergency ward you have ever seen, with the most primitive conditions – this is much, much worse than what you are imagining right now. There is no air conditioning and it is about 34 degrees inside the wards, families and visitors stand and sit everywhere smoking, eating, talking. The heavy smell of cigarettes is all throughout the wards and lingers over the patients as they lay in pain. Feral cats walk amongst the patients trying to find food and drinking from cups of water sitting next to patients. The hospital “beds” are crude metal frames that look like they are from the 1920s. The sheets are stained with blood, urine, dirt and they stink. Patients lay with open wounds, if they are lucky the wounds have been crudely stitched with large stitches from which puss and blood has leaked and started to dry and crust over.

I looked the ward and closest to me I saw an elderly man writhing in pain. He had been trapped in the quake and saved after 36 hours, but not before a concrete beam had crushed his leg and broken it in dozens of places leaving him unable to move. He was operated on while conscious and a long metal contraption was drilled into his leg in several places to hold his bones in place. The metal contraption now protrudes from his leg, he has bandages around the metal rods and blood has started to seep through the bandages. Hundreds of ants have been attracted by the smell of blood and are crawling over the bandaged wound trying to get in. I approach him and start to help make him more comfortable physically by cleaning up the bandages, his sheets and bed. But apart from the physical pain this main is deeply traumatised. He has lost his home, a life of collected belongings, photos and memories. He has also lost his family. Using a translator I start to talk to him and using trauma relief techniques I assist as much as I can. After some time, he turns to me and thanks me for coming to his country to help his people. He says he can not believe I would come from Australia to help his people. He asks why, I say I saw it on TV and thought that he would need help. He smiles from ear to ear and repeatedly says “terima kasih, terima kasih, terima kasih” - Thankyou. I tell him I must now help another person, he nods and lets me go as I move to the next patient.

We have visited hospitals, villages, gone into the ground zero area where landslides buried whole communities, worked with government leaders and non-government organizations and volunteers. We have met hundreds and hundreds of locals. You wish you could help literally every single person. One morning we drove into Periaman which is up in the mountains where thousands of villagers had been injured and left homeless and foodless. We drove in with a car full of food and as we distributed it people came running from all directions to get anything they could. It was such a rush to be able to give them something that they needed so much. But once everything was distributed I could see that there were people that had been left with no food. I was really upset and angry that we hadn’t been able to provide to every single person.

But we will keep going and try and reach as many as we can...that’s all I can write now but I’ll be in touch soon to let you know more!

Thanks again,

Carly

PART 2

Helping out at the local school

Using a translator and sign language we started playing games with the kids,
this is a common trauma relief technique to help the kids cope with the fear
and upset. They all started laughing hysterically and jumping around as I
made gestures or movements and they had to copy me. Using a translator I
then taught them earthquake safety techniques and got them to practice. They
all listened carefully, hanging onto every word and watching every gesture.

We then started taking pictures and video footage of them which they
absolutely love. They all clamor and run to be on the camera. Its really
cute. They especially love my iphone! I have all sorts of games and
applications on it, and they are amazed at them and all crowd around wanting
a turn to play.

Help us rebuild their school

We finished at the school by touring the school and meeting with the
principal and teachers. They need to rebuild their school and in the
meantime the kids are learning in 38 degree tents I was there for a couple
of hours and I felt like I was going to faint. After the visit I went out
and bought fans for all the tents so that there would be at least some bit of a breeze.
But this is a temporary solution. I said that we would get a team back and look at
how we can help rebuild the school. We need about $20,000 to do this. If you
would like to donate or come over and help rebuild please click here.

And so it continues patient after patient, person after person. Each with a
story that will knock the wind out of you and make you feel so utterly
grateful for every thing and every person you have in your life.

I'll leave you with one more story...

I have told you how we were visiting a local hospital and helping the
victims. Well one day when we were at the hospital we were told of a
patient, apparently one of the worst cases that they had. The nurses asked
if we could help her. When I went to her bed she was being fed which took
some time and so I promised to come back another time to help her. So I went
back the very next day as promised. This girl had just turned 18. Her head
had
been shaved so the Doctors could get to the scars and gashes on her scalp.
She
had crude stitches all over her head that were seeping blood and puss.

She was in so much pain

Her brother explained that she had been trapped in the rubble after the
quake. It had taken almost three days before she was rescued. She had no
food or water during this time. No paid medication, no communication,
nothing. He explained that she was delerious and seemed to think she was
still there. She had barely slept since the quake which by now had been
almost a week. I couldn't imagine the physical and emotional pain she must
be feeling but I wanted to help anyway I could. I lifted her sheet to
examine her wounds and saw that she had massive gashes and wounds all over
her body, some the size of dinner plates which were completely raw and
undressed wounds. She had dried blood caked on her body, she was sweating,
her hands were tied to her hospital bed because she would start screaming
and flailing her arms and try and rip out the drip that was hydrating her
and
keeping her alive.

As I went to put the sheet back on her I felt her skin which was very hot to
touch. It literally felt like touching an oven door, I have never felt this
heat on human skin. I called the nurse and asked for her temperature to be
taken. She was over 40. I asked for bowls of water and towels immediately so
I could try and cool her body down, while at the same time give her a much
needed wash.

I soaked a tea towel in the water and wiped it around her wounds and onto
her skin. It evaporated almost immediately. I've never seen anything like
it. I continued from head to toe. She started to calm down slightly, though
every couple of minutes she would start screaming and trying to throw her
arms around. I untied her hands from the bed, no wonder she still felt
trapped, this was a bit dangerous but everytime she flailed her hands I
would just hold her hands and tell her it was okay. I said it In English,
she speaks Indonesian. But somehow she seemed to know what I meant. She then
calmed down and I would resume wetting her down.

After a couple of rounds of her whole body the water was almost black. As
the nurses changed the water over she started shouting for me to keep going,
saying "please, please, this is helping, please keep going it feels so good.
This is helping." Her brother sat next to her helpless as she writhed,
screamed and shouted - obviously in so much pain. I couldn't help but think,
what if this was my family, my brother. It felt so close to home, so real
that it could happen to someone close to me. It took everything I had to try
and not cry, everything I had wasn't enough and I felt tears welling. They
started to leave my eyes and I turned and tried to wipe them away with no
one noticing. I don't think my tears would help her.

Easing her pain

I left and went to help more patients, the next morning I went back to the
hospital to see how she was but not before I visited a local market to buy
some clean, light cotton clothes for her to wear. She had been wearing heavy
polyester pyjamas which didn't seem to help. I walked into her ward and over
to her bed, she was asleep! Her brother smiled, and now her mother was there
too. They explained that she had slept all night, woken in the morning for
breakfast and had continued to sleep all morning. I gave them the clothes
and explained why they would help, they thanked me and I left.

I am so glad I was able to help, but I wonder how many we didn't get to.
Once again thank you for every dollar donated. CFOUNDATION will continue to
help, continue to assist, nurse, educate - whatever we need to do to empower
lives and create change. If you are interested in helping please click here
to register as a volunteer.

It is estimated that up to 600,000 people have been affected with quakes having destroyed public buildings, including hospitals, schools, individual houses, power and telephone lines, with reports of fires and floods caused by broken pipes as well as landslides, road and bridge collapses. The earthquake was so strong it was felt as far as Malaysia and Singapore, more than 300kms away.

These people need your help urgently as they try to rebuild their lives. Anything you Donate is greatly appreciated and goes directly to help these earthquake victims and nowhere else. I will be sending you updates and pictures so that you can see just how extremely valuable your donation is. I will be flying into Padang and helping to deliver food, medical supplies, rebuild homes, set up counselling and medical teams, deliver trauma relief and anything else that I can do.