Twelve-year-old
Jefri lived with his mother and three brothers in a small house in a
village near Yogyakarta. Their father had been dead for a year and the
family struggled on with the help of an uncle who supported the boys at
school. He would visit now and again with a sack of rice for the
family.
Although life wasn't
easy, Jefri was a talented and intelligent boy who loved studying. His
favorite subject was mathematics, and he always got top marks. But on
27th May an earthquake struck mercilessly at the family's already
precarious existence.
Hurt in the quake
Jefri
was in the shower when the ground started shaking. Gripped by fright,
he tried to run out of the house, but a falling object struck him on
the back and he fell to the ground. As he tried to get up, a wall
collapsed on top of him and he blacked out.
He
regained consciousness some hours later and found himself lying in a
hospital bed, unsure of what had happened. He couldn't remember the
earthquake at first, but as his tearful mother sat by his bedside
talking to him, he slowly began to recollect the event.
A temporary home
Jefri
was injured, even so, he could not stay in hospital because of the
large number of casualties. Around 33,000 people were seriously injured
that day. His uncle came to pick him up and fifteen minutes later he
was taken back to the village by motorcycle.
Almost every building along the road home was either in ruins or badly damaged, and Jefri couldn't stop himself from crying.
When
they got to his village they found a chair for the injured boy to sit
on, while his uncle help put up a temporary shelter for Jefri and his
family. As Jefri's uncle worked, other villagers built temporary
shelters out of the ruins and looked for the dead and injured in the
rubble.
When the work was
finished, Jefri insisted on limping without any help into the shack
that would be his home for some time to come.
It took a week for Jefri to recover from his injuries, but he will have to live in a temporary home for some time longer.
Tent school
The
school where he loved to study was also destroyed in the quake, but
this did not stop Jefri from learning. As soon as he recovered, he
started attending a tent school with his friends.
Islamic
Relief is helping families like Jefri's with emergency relief. They
receive hygiene kits, blankets, tarpaulin and other forms of aid, but
what Jefri and his friends want most is a school like they had before
instead of a tent.
Your donation can help families like Jefri's receive the help they need after this disaster.