A Blessing in Disguise, Residents of Quake Victims Settled New Homes in Palu Tzu Chi Great Love Housing Village
Journalist : Khusnul Khotimah, Photographer : Clarissa Ruth, Tan Surianto (Tzu Chi Volunteers)
Jakarta Tzu Chi volunteers who had just arrived in Palu, immediately head over to the Palu City National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure Office (BPBD) in order to complete the handover of the housing units to the last 13 beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s housing aid.
A few hours before the inauguration of the Tzu Chi Great Love housing village in Tadulako and Pombewe on Friday, 3 September 2021, Tzu Chi volunteers were rushing to the Palu City National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure Office (BPBD). They were about to complete the phase of signing a permanent housing agreement for the 13 beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s housing aid.
These 13 beneficiaries were the last 13 of the 1,500 beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s housing aid at Tzu Chi Great Love housing village in Tadulako. One of the beneficiaries is Syafruddin (49), a husband with three children. His house in Balaroa National Public Housing was lost in soil liquefaction.
Syafruddin was previously a clothing retailer owner at the Manonda Inpres Market in the western region of Palu City for 19 years. He employed people to work for him and often traveled to Tanah Abang Market in Jakarta to buy wholesale clothing.
Additionally at Balaroa National Public Housing, Syafruddin was a neighborhood head who really cared about the residents. He is known as someone helpful, humble, polite, and always reliable. This is the reason why many friends, relatives, and neighbors respect and love him.
Syafruddin's life was much established and settled, however when Palu City was struck by three dreadful disasters at once; earthquake, tsunami and soil liquefaction on 28 September 2018, his life suddenly has changed.
As one of the street vendor manager, Syafruddin was never absent attending night market events. During the annual event of Palu Nomoni Festival on 28 September 2018, he and his wife were also working as a street vendor, selling clothes. Along the Talise coast, many stages were set up. At dusk, the tsunami suddenly came and swept away everything along the coast.
“My wife was pregnant at the time, she was thrown against the old Undata fence wall which left her immobile for eight months, she then had surgeries. I myself had to use a cane for two months since I was thrown into a tree,” he said. Thankfully, his two children were safe.
Meanwhile in Balaroa Village, the soil liquefaction disaster swallowed up two plots of his house. His family was forced to rent a house as they were unable to live in a temporary shelter facilitated by the government due to serious injuries.
Live Survival Under Limitations
Along with the handover, Bambang Sabarsyah (brown vest) tasks for solving problems of residents who have lost their house are now almost complete, although there are a few residents who cannot be accommodated yet.
Syafruddin and his family had been moving around for the past three years. They were renting a very simple house. Additionally, in order to support his family, this caring father figure was forced to become a scavenger.
“Now I'm a scavenger, but I don't feel ashamed. I was given a motorbike by my adopted son. My own motorbike was swept away by the tsunami. I scavenge using a cart. The important thing is that I don't steal and I don't beg because I have a responsibility,” Syafruddin said.
When residents asked for his help with the housing aid administrative submission to BPBD, Syafruddin, despite his difficulties, still managed to help. Slowly, everyone who got help from him with were finally received the housing aid.
Unfortunately, during the verification process, his name was never appeared on the list. Syafruddin was waiting patiently, kept trying and praying. Deep down inside his heart, he was sure that one day his turn will came, he will get the housing aid.
"I keep fighting because it is my right as a disaster victim. There was no data manipulation because we are genuinely disaster victims. That's what I always hold on to," he said.
A Sign
Syafruddin has always been sincere in accepting and think positively all this time even when his name had not been declared as the beneficiary of housing aid. "I often say to my friends, ‘God willing, it might be the best I could get'."
On that evening of Thursday, Syafruddin was sitting on the terrace of his house which lease was about to expire. There was not one penny left in his pocket. Syafruddin had not scavenged for three days because it was raining every day in Palu city.
When the call to prayer for Isha resounded, Syafruddin immediately prayed dan recited the Quran. He then sat back on the terrace. On that day, as far as his eyes could see, there were only rows of houses in the Tzu Chi Great Love housing village in Tadulako, unlike their usual view that was blocked by the shade of the trees. Syafruddin immediately called his wife to tell her about the unusual sight that day.
“Why there were no trees that I could see, only the permanent resident of Tondo (Tzu Chi Great Love housing village in Tadulako) could be seen. By 1 p.m., I was still on the terrace. I woke my little son with the pacifier still attached then immediately hugged my thigh. I again saw that the forests in front of my house were no longer there, only the permanent resident of Tondo that I saw,” he repeated.
When he woke up in the morning, apparently there was an unanswered call from Bambang Sabarsyah, Head of Emergency and Logistic Division at the Palu City BPBD. Bambang asked him to come to the BPBD office at 9 a.m. with a copy of his ID card and copy of his family card.
“This is what I saw last night,” he thought to himself.
The story behind during the past three years, Syafruddin had often been asked to come to the village, sub-district or other office to help complete the documents. On that day, he also came to the BPBD office without expectation. “As I arrived at the BPBD, it turned out that there were several Tzu Chi volunteers already there. After I signed documents, I was immediately notified. ‘Sir, please take the house block number’. I immediately cried while prostrating gratitude,” Syafruddin said with teary eyes.
The volunteers and BPBD officers, include Bambang Sabarsyah, were deeply moved to witness how much Syafruddin needed the housing aid.
Syafruddin did not go home directly after leaving the BPBD office. He was walking towards the garden. In a rather quiet place, he burst into tears. He also did not immediately call his wife, his heart was still rumbling because of the abundance of happiness. The patience that he had cultivated and the prayers that he kept on praying for the past three years, were finally answered.
After his crying subsided, then he called his wife, Musliah. “Ma, thank God now we have a house,” he sobbed. On the other end of the phone, his wife broke down into tears. “How about it, is there a key already?” Musliah asked. “Not yet, but I have taken the block number,” Syafruddin answered.
Joy Contentment at the Inauguration of Great Love Housing Village
Sudarman Lim gave the house keys directly to Syafruddin and his family.
Not only were they declared to be the beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s housing aid, Syafruddin and 12 other people on that day were also able to immediately receive house keys. But it will be given later after 3 p.m. Central Indonesian Time, after the inauguration of Tzu Chi Great Love housing village which will be led by the Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto. This is different from the previous one where the other beneficiaries had received the housing block numbers, they still had to wait because the construction of Tzu Chi Great Love housing village was not yet completed.
The happiness of the last batch beneficiary of housing aid seemed to complement the happiness at the Inauguration of the Tzu Chi Great Love housing village on that afternoon. Bambang Sabarsyah and his team at the Palu City BPBD are people who have greatly contributed to the process of accelerating the verification of residents. They also attended the inauguration ceremony.
“First of all, I would like to thank the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation who has greatly helped the survivors, especially those affected by soil liquefaction and tsunami. Of course, I feel very happy and sometimes even touched. Because residents who have not had a place to live, those who have been living in the temporary shelter, those who are still renting a house, are now living in existing permanent residences," he said.
Seeing how the Tzu Chi Great Love housing village has been established and inhabited by disaster survivors in Palu city, Bambang was relieved. “Besides conducting the verification process, I was also involved from the beginning, from the process of the disaster incident on 18 September. So, we are really understood that the people who are relocated in these temporary shelters are the ones who have lost everything. They lost their houses with their belongings, lost their lives, maybe their parents, children, siblings, wives, so their wounds were slightly healed,” Bambang explained.
Receiving House Keys
Syafruddin and his wife, Musliah were prostrating thanks to God for their answered prayers.
One of the last batch beneficiary of Tzu Chi’s housing aid was immersed in gratitude.
After the inauguration ceremony, one by one the 13 last batch beneficiaries of Tzu Chi’s housing aid were arriving at the function hall of Tzu Chi Great Love housing village in Tadulako. Syafruddin took his wife and three children with him, still filled with emotion and happy tears.
Sudarman Lim and Sudarman Koh, Tzu Chi volunteers, were accompanying them when they unlocked the house.
“Sir and Madam, please embrace your hand to pray,” Sudarman Lim said. "We give the house keys to you. How are you feeling now?"
“Thank God,” Syafruddin and his wife gently answered.
“Hold my hand, Sir and Madam, also your children. All hand in hand. Now, I hand over the keys. This house is a gift from God to you, ” Sudarman Lim said.
“Iye…” Syafruddin and his wife said. “Iye” is the subtle language of Palu residents for the word “Yes”.
“Please open the door,” Sudarman Lim beckoned.
When the door opened, Syafruddin and his wife immediately were prostrating thanks for the blessings and gifts they had been waiting for these three years.
“I cried while prostrating gratitude, because I really experienced three disasters at once. Our gratitude can’t be expressed in words. Others may still have families who have other house to live in. Meanwhile, I really need a house. We are very grateful to the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation,” Syafruddin said.
After receiving the keys, Syafruddin along with his wife and his children began to clean the area around the house. "Your fortune has now come, son." That's what he said to his children.
After finding out that Syafruddin had finally received Tzu Chi's housing aid, his friends and residents who he had helped a lot in the past times came to visit him at Syafruddin's new house. Those who knew him also felt great joy.
Both Sudarman Lim and Sudarman Koh were immersed into this moment.
“I was the first to be in charge of shuffling the beneficiaries’ candidate name of housing aid, this is the most memorable. Why? I saw the process of them waiting for this house, actually they were on one’s last leg, they didn't know where they were going. But in their prayers, they still strive. I am very happy, thank God, I was given the opportunity to do good deed," Sudarman Lim said.
“This also completes our happiness. From the beginning of the disaster, we arrived. During the verification, we also met the residents in the temporary shelters. By seeing step by step their suffering. So now it seems that it is complete, it completes their happiness," Sudarman Koh concluded.
Vincent Salimputra (Tzu Chi Volunteers)
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