Azra, 13, remembers running out of her house that evening of August 5, 2018, just after a violent 6.9 magnitude earthquake. “We saw the houses collapse one by one. It traumatized us a lot.”
The earthquake in northwest Lombok, the strongest ever recorded on the Indonesian island, killed 560 people and damaged or destroyed nearly every structure in the rural area two hours’ drive north of the city of Mataram, behind forest-covered mountains.
Azra’s house was also destroyed. “I was happy that there were no victims in my family, but I was also sad because I knew that my parents had worked hard to find the money to build the house.”
Since then, the houses in the villages along the coastal road have been rebuilt and life seems to have returned to normal around the shops and restaurants. warung [« étals »] selling fried chicken and rice. But the disaster continues to have an impact on children’s education.
DIY tents and sheds
After the earthquake, schools were closed for three months. When classes resumed, students found themselves in tents set up on school grounds or mosques. The National Disaster Management Authority counted more than 400 schools that were badly damaged and completely unusable. The Covid-19 pandemic largely dented reconstruction efforts, but progress has been slow since then.
At the beginning of this year, Azra and her classmates in the fifth grade were still studying in a makeshift classroom. Their middle school is in a farming area on the outskirts of the coastal town of Tanjung. The authorities had not renovated enough buildings to accommodate the school’s 400 students, so classes were held in sheds made from plywood sheets.
“We weren’t comfortable in there because it was very hot,” Azra confides. During the rainy season (November to March), the rooms were flooded and the students had their feet in water.
In February, Azra and her classmates became the first students at the school to have classes in earthquake-resistant classrooms made of recycled plastic bricks. On the dusty grounds of the school, the new classrooms stand as a beacon of hope next to the ruins of the library and science lab, which have yet to be demolished.
The modular brick classrooms are part of a pioneering project led by Australian non-governmental organisation Classroom of Hope. [« classe de l’espoir »].
One week to build
These bricks that fit together like Lego allow you to build an entire building in a week
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