A devastating disaster can scar a community for generations, as the children of Sikka regency in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, well know.
The children of Sikka were not yet born when a powerful earthquake rocked the coastal town of Maumere, Sikka's capital, in 1992, sending deadly waves washing lives away, but they know a fair bit about it.
As slim 15-year-old Roihs sums it up simply, "A lot of people died."
More than 1,000 people, in fact, were swept away by the tsunami, which also damaged around 10,000 buildings.
"We didn't know what a tsunami was," said Michael Mane, head of the prevention and disaster preparedness division at the Sikka Disaster Agency. "We had never experienced anything like that. Even 70-year-old people didn't know about it. And a lot of people on the coast died because of that."
Michael's own memories of the catastrophe are still clear; he recalls not being able to stand up while the tremor shook the earth. "There were three shocks, one was horizontal, the second vertical and the third was horizontal again."
Now, the term tsunami is firmly planted in most Indonesian minds, especially after the 2004 tsunami that swept over Aceh, killing more than 100,000 people. The archipelago, located on the Asia Pacifi c Ring of Fire, experiences tectonic earthquakes almost daily.
Indonesia started to set up an early warning system in 2005 after the Aceh tsunami; it was completed at the end of 2008.
The desire to be prepared for disasters is palpable in Sikka as well. Today in Sikka, the local administration is attempting to empower communities to be prepared for disasters and to educate people on ways to minimize the impact through preventive measures. Last year the administration installed an early warning system and in February, almost 17 years after the 1992 tsunami, Sikka regency set up its Disaster Agency.
The agency was set up almost on a whim. Michael said the agency had no funding for seven months and had so far only made plans for 2010; several projects are pending. For a month, the fi rst fi ve staff members had to work without chairs. In September, Michael added, the agency received funding from the regency budget.
Their first plan is to start disaster risk identifi cation program in every village in Sikka, Michael said: 35 of the regency's 160 villages will be surveyed by the end of this year.
Among its campaigns, the agency is focusing on making school students aware of disaster preparedness. Although most of the school buildings were destroyed in the 1992 earthquake, most students were at home at the time as the quake hit after school hours.
"We need to prepare them for emergencies. And also to teach them conservation," he said.
This year, with UNESCO and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the agency will hold workshops on disaster risk reduction and simulations at three schools, with plans to extend them to another 10 schools by the end of next year.
"There are a lot of schools in Sikka, but we're moving gradually. One of our obstacles is funding," Michael said.
He said that NGOs were also helping with the campaign and with training communities and students in disaster preparedness.
John Joman, disaster risk reduction facilitator with the NGO plan in Sikka, said they were campaigning at the village level in Sikka.
In addition to campaigning on disaster risk reduction in schools and villages, the organization is helping to facilitate the establishment of a children's organization, in a bid to give children a place to voice their opinions and make decisions in handling problems in the area, John said.
The children of Sikka are already able to identify disaster risks, listing forest fires, fl ooding, landslides and typhoons. Understanding the risks made them more aware of the lingering danger around them.
High school senior Maria Porta Siapada from Masabewa village, around 43 kilometers from Maumere, said that she was once swept away in a fl ood when she was in the river.
"I didn't know that it was raining in the mountains, I only saw that it was cloudy up there," she said. Fortunately, she got through the experience safely, and is now always quick to remind people to get out of the river when it is cloudy in the mountains.
With her friends in the children's forum, she planted trees near the river to stop flooding.
Fifteen-year-old Indra Yva'u experienced a different disaster when the annual typhoon ripped off the zinc roof of his house.
"We were sleeping and we heard a loud noise and when we looked up we could see the stars," he said.
Now, his roof is tied to the ground with ropes attached to a pole.
Despite the effort made for disaster risk reduction, having all villages put their knowledge into practice is Hendrikus Nita The teacher who wants to bring change not easy.
Disaster risk reduction facilitator from Wolodesa village Hendrikus Nita said each village depended on the members.
"If they don't care about it, nothing will change," he said.
Hendrikus, who is also the elementary school principal, said that in the next village, people still cut down trees and burn the forest to make it easier to hunt wild pigs.
By contrast, Hendrikus and his students planted trees near the water source, around 2 kilometers up from the village.
"In the 1980s the forest was bald, but now it's lush," he said. "Things can change for the better if we set our mind to it."
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