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ChildFund Indonesia is helping children in Sulawesi whose lives were devastated by the powerful tsunami and earthquake that hit the island in September.

Officials have confirmed that more than 2,000 people lost their lives and almost 80,000 people were displaced following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami on September 28.

The disasters destroyed villages, cutting off essential services like water and electricity, and leaving more than 46,000 children in urgent need of aid. Below we’ll explain how we’re providing disaster relief to children in the affected areas.

Child-Centred Disaster Relief

ChildFund Indonesia country director Bridgette Thorold said the generosity of international donors, including Australians, has helped ChildFund respond to the needs of children.

“In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake on Sulawesi, ChildFund in partnership with a local NGO is assisting children and their families affected by the earthquake through family kits to enable basic shelter, personal care and hygiene,” Bridgette said.

“This is very important in ensuring a sense of dignity and well-being.

“We are also establishing Child-Centered Spaces, which provide children with opportunity for recreational and stimulating activities. These are critical in providing a safe, supervised routine for social interaction that enable children to overcome psychological effects of the disaster.

“Volunteers who run these facilities are also being trained to recognise signs of psychosocial distress in children, to support children manage these behaviours and to refer for professional help when necessary.”

We’re a lucky country.

That’s the consensus of the students at Georges River Grammar in south-west Sydney.

“People in Australia have so much but we forget how little other people have,” sixth-grader Lourdes says.

“I think we should give more to charity because people in other countries aren’t as lucky as we are,” Oscar, also in Grade 6, adds.

We’re sitting under a giant fig tree in the school playground, and it’s clear the Grade 6 students we’re speaking to are wonderfully bright and compassionate. They’re also savvy and know a thing or two about the struggles their peers growing up in developing communities face.

For almost two decades staff at Georges River Grammar have taught their students about the importance of helping others.

The school, which has more than 470 students between kindergarten and Grade 6, has been sponsoring children through ChildFund since 2001 and hold regular fundraising activities each year to support disadvantaged children and communities.

Their most recent event – Helping Others Afternoon – raised $3000 for ChildFund’s Laos Nutrition Appeal and children affected by the Philippines typhoon, which killed dozens of people in September and forced more than 236,000 families to abandon their homes.

The money were raised over an afternoon in October when classes from Grade 2 to Grade 6 ran stalls and activities for students, including face painting and games, and sold cakes and second-hand books and toys.

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