In 2006, a month after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Central Java, Indonesia, I visited the city of Yogyakarta with a team from an NGO Crisis Relief Singapore (CRS) who were running mobile medical clinics at remote locations outside the main city. It is estimated that about 5,700 people were killed and 50,000 people injured. Many homes were destroyed and countless families were made homeless. We saw the destruction wrought by the earthquake firsthand as we moved to areas outside the main city. For me, it felt quite surreal initially and I could not really connect with what I was seeing. I was only able to better understand and relate after I started talking to the people with the little smattering of Bahasa that I knew.
I helped to photo document some of the medical work for CRS and after my time with them, I stayed on for one more week with another NGO Youth With A Mission Yogyakarta to help photo document some of the relief work they were involved in (e.g. distribution of tools, food, demolishing of homes that were no longer safe to stay in, etc).
The following is a selection of photographs from my time there.
