Bad Management of Refugee Camps
Many refugees from around Merapi Volcano were stranded in many refugee camps around Yogyakarta, Sleman, Wonosari, Muntilan, Magelang, and Klaten. What happen in those places? How do they fulfill their daily needs?
Yesterday, I and my friend Alkhapila went to Klaten, around 40 minutes drive by car from my home. There are around 7 refugee camps spread across Klaten. What I found out was very unpredictable. Many refugee camps don’t have any mobile kitchen. They rely on supplies from few logistic posts. So what do they do? That is the biggest question.
Second of all, bureaucracy in this town is very complicated. Asking for few items, we need a lot of permission, while some of the refugees are starving or feeling cold. Worse, the logistics aren’t well coordinated. There isn’t any central coordination of this town to coordinate the logistics. Instead of that, there are many logistic posts which accept and calculate the logistics from the donation, and write those which go out.
Worst, many problems could arise between refugees. Like I found a case where refugees refused to eat cold rice and a few pieces of meat and vegetables. One person said, “I could afford more than this, I don’t want to eat this!” They also feel like kings and queen, they choose many second hand shirts from the donation like they are shopping in the market. I also worried about other cases that may arise among them, such as pickpockets and boredom.
My friend also told me how bad refugee camps in Magelang. He said, they need many volunteers there to help them. Although there are many donation from the people.
I hope volunteers could manage refugees to help them which could kill their boredom. It also helps the volunteer much.
