A 4.8 Richter scale earthquake struck East Bali at 4.18am on Saturday 16 October when most people were sleeping. The epicentre was right under our steeply sloping mountain village of Ban on the northern slopes of Mounts Agung and Abang in East Bali, causing extreme damage: 363 houses totally destroyed, 762 suffered light to medium damage; and 123 Hindu temples were damaged, some severely. All 363 homeless families urgently need temporary houses, especially now the rainy season has started.
Most of the 363 now-homeless families in 12 of our 15 remote sub-villages and generally in locations remote from each other, live far from a surfaced road and at night, since the earthquake, take shelter under flimsy tarpaulins or squeeze in with neighbours who have safer homes. Now that the rainy season has started, the safe earthquake-proof A-frame shelters are more important than ever, especially for young children, pregnant mothers and people with disabilities
We plan to provide all the materials and technical support for the 363 families whose houses were destroyed to build bamboo A-frame houses, with sturdy and sustainable roofing as temporary shelters until the government can provide the resources for permanent houses - which EBPP will advise must be earthquake-proof from readily available bamboo as the main building material. Each 4 x 5 meter A-frame house can shelter a family of 6-7 people. One bamboo A-frame temporary home costs only US $275.
Homeless families will have temporary safe and sustainable shelters to protect them from the rain and winds during the 7-8 months rainy season which has started, and enable them to protect their babies, young children, etc., until they build permanent homes, and enabling the farmers to return to their fields in the knowledge that their families are safe in secure temporary homes - with the added benefit that they own these A-frame homes!
