Reactivation of the Village Disaster Preparedness Team

#LombokBangkitKembali - The earthquake that hit Lombok in 2018 and the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic is becoming an alarm that awakens the public about the importance of a disaster awareness. This has motivated the formation of a Disaster Preparedness Team at the village level (TSBD) in East Lombok Regency.

Abdul Rozak (29) chairman of the TSBD of Sajang Village, Sembalun District, East Lombok Regency, revealed that the initial formation of this TSBD was based on the flash flood disaster in the East Lombok Regency area. Rozak said that at that time the community received assistance to form TSBD by other previous institutions. They had run the program in 2016 and stopped in 2017 because there was no program to be run.

Seeing the condition, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) conducted a recovery response with UNDP Petra to reactivate and establish TSBD in 3 villages in Sembalun District, named Sajang Village, Sembalun Lawang Village, and Sembalun Bumbung Village. Not only reactivation and establishment of the TSBD but WVI also carried out several ongoing activities, namely evaluating the TSBD program, conducting an annual program plan, and making a disaster risk assessment.

Through the assistance that WVI is currently running, there are quite a lot of changes that the community has experienced. The TSBD which previously only had 20 members has now become 50 members. Previously, the members who joined were only those with the older age group, but now youth are also participating in TSBD activities.

Currently, TSBD members are also able to make programs and are actively involved in the village. The village has also provided a separate budget to support TSBD activities and operations.

"We are quite satisfied with the current assistance from WVI. We hope that WVI can provide capacity building related to disasters so that people can evacuate independently when there is a disaster, and there will be guided to improve the community's economy, "said Rozak.

WVI has been assisting TSBD activities and It will continue until December 2020.

Written by: Siluh Putu Febriana, Lombok Earthquake Emergency Response Staff, WVI