<
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/7/7/how-life-goes-on-after-an-earthquake-the-lego-schools-of-lombok>
"Lombok, Indonesia – Azra, 13, recalls running out of her house when a violent
magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck one evening about six years ago. Most people
were inside their homes eating or watching television.
“We saw the houses collapsing one by one, it brought a big trauma for us,” she
recalls.
The shallow inland earthquake that hit the northwest of the island on August 5,
2018, was the strongest ever recorded on Lombok, killing 560 people and
damaging or destroying nearly all structures in the rural region that is a
two-hour drive through forested mountain passes from the main town of Mataram
in the south.
Azra’s home was also destroyed. “I was thankful there were no victims in my
family, but I felt very sad because I know how my parents had struggled with
money to build our home,” she says.
In the villages along the coastal road, simple homes have since been rebuilt
and life around the lean-to shops and warungs (kiosks or small eateries)
selling fried chicken and rice appears to have returned to normal. But the
disaster is having a lasting effect on children’s education.
After the earthquake, schools were closed for three months. When they reopened,
most children found themselves learning in temporary classrooms set up in tents
on school grounds or in mosques. More than 400 schools were assessed by the
country’s National Disaster Management Authority as severely damaged by the
quake and completely unusable. Some schools have since been rebuilt, but the
COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the recovery efforts, and progress has been slow
ever since."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
