Our Daily Diaries - Part 1

"The parable of those who spend their property in the way of Allah is as the parable of a grain growing seven ears (with) a hundred grains in every ear; and Allah multiplies for whom He pleases; and Allah is Ample-giving, Knowing"

Al-Baqarah :261

"Perumpamaan orang yang menginfakkan hartanya di jalan Allah seperti sebutir biji yang menumbuhkan 7 tangkai, pada setiap tangkai ada seratus biji. Allah melipatgandakan bagi siapa yang Dia kehendaki, dan Allah Maha luas Maha mengetahui"

DATE : 1^st – 7^th August 2010

VENUE : DESA SUKASETIA, KECAMATAN CISAYONG, KABUPATEN TASIKMALAYA

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Day 1 : Salam perkenalan

1st of August 2010

Alhamdulillah after all the difficulties the whole team has been through, 6 members of Indonesian Relief Mission 2010 team managed to gather at LCC Terminal Airport on time. Our flight took off at 9 am.

Air Asia

We arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta at around 11 am. We then took Primajasa (a bus service) to Bandung Supermall where the General Leader of BSMI (Bulan Sabit Merah Indonesia) Tasikmalaya, Dr Husen picked us up and brought us to a restaurant to have our dinner and perform prayers.

Waiting at Bandung

We managed with a whole load of stuffs, alhamdulillah.

We continued our journey to Tasikmalaya which took more than 3 hours from Bandung. We reached our accommodation for the whole week i.e. the house of head of Desa Sukasetia, Pak Kuwu at around 10 pm. Before going to bed, we had a meeting regarding our planned activities with Dr Husen and our facilitators namely Dr Asep Hermana, Dr Ria Triana, and Pak Asep Budiawan. Our activity tentative had to be adjusted to suit our facilitators’ schedule.

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Day 2 : Orientasi

2nd of August 2010

This was the orientation day for us. We paid a visit to Pak Kuwu’s office (Kantor Kepala Desa). We put up our banner in front of the office and set up a place for the big event on the next day i.e. mobile clinic a.k.a PUSLING (PUSKESMAS Keliling).

Meeting and discussion with staffs at the office of Head of Village

Arranging the tables etc for the upcoming Pusling

Cleaning up

Next, we visited PUSKESMAS (Pusat Kesihatan Masyarakat) a.k.a the village clinic. We had a ta’aruf session with the doctors, and had a short discussion about our upcoming activities. Afterwards, we also had a chance to listen to their accounts of the 7.3 Richter-scaled disaster. We were told and shown the effects of the earthquake i.e. the cracks on the clinic wall etc.

Crack signs on the wall

Dr. Asep giving us a tour around the clinic

At the same time, we grabbed the chance to ask questions about the health care status of the village people and compare the health issues arising in Indonesia and Malaysia. Among them are the issues of early pregnancies, increasing number of mother and child deaths (significantly due to paraji – unskilled village midwives) and the limited available services to the villagers due to financial problems.

Staffs at the clinics

Later in the evening, we went back home and did some early preparations for the health education session. We packed toothbrushes, toothpastes, and pencil cases containing pencils, erasers, and rulers for approximately 200 students and another 20 orphans.

These were given to the students at the primary school

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Stationeries

At night, we had a meeting as a final preparation for mobile clinics - discussion on how to execute the clinic systematically, prepare the stuffs needed (pamphlets etc.), task delegations, and blood pressure measurement practice.

Our handmade pamphlets