All eyes will be on the earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesian coastal region of Sulawesi, south east Asia, on Thursday.
The country’s national disaster agency is calling off all search, rescue and recovery operations as of Thursday amid concerns over the spread of disease.
Thursday will be exactly two weeks since the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami which killed over 2000 residents leaving thousand others buried under sunken buildings.
Volunteers deployed to Palu by South African Non-Governmental Organisation Gift of the Givers will also be concluding their humanitarian mission after spending the past three days building shelters, distributing food parcels and treating survivors of the quake.
There are mushrooming camps and shelters throughout the coastal city of Palu as the aftermath of the twin disaster of 28 September. It has been almost two weeks of mourning, trauma and nursing their injuries and nail by nail, survivors are slowly picking up the pieces, rebuilding shelters.
After being displaced from their homes by the grumbling earth, 10 metre high waves and runaway mudslides, besides losing loved ones and homes, they do not have food and water either.
But help is at hand. Gift of the Givers volunteers have been spreading the spirit of Ubuntu. Matt Gerber and Abdelmounim Korchi who came from Denmark and the US respectively are also part of the delegation.
Meanwhile, the Indonesia Red Crescent has been receiving more patients. We met a man has still not heard from his brother and wife since that fateful day when the earth shook.
For now, survivors are hopeful that the aftershocks will also come to a stop, so they can move on with their lives.
More than five thousand still remain unaccounted for. It’s reported that government is in discussions with the families of those who perished to turn of the site of the disaster into a mass grave. Click below for more on the story:
