IOM has signed an agreement with the World Bank in Indonesia, which
administers the multi-donor Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF), to
build 16,000 transitional shelters for survivors of the May 2006
earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java. The multi-donor fund was
created to support reconstruction in both districts.

The agreement was signed between IOM and the World Bank with the
endorsement of the Governors of the Yogyakarta Special Region and
Central Java Province.

The new commitment is in addition to 12,000 shelters that IOM is
currently building with funding from donors including ECHO, USAID,
UK DFID and the Netherlands.

IOM has already built some 8,500 transitional shelters in
Yogyakarta and Central Java, where an estimated 250,000 houses were
destroyed by the earthquake - one of the most costly natural
disasters in terms of material damage in the developing world over
the past ten years.

Working with architects from local universities, IOM
contribution to solving the housing emergency created by the
earthquake has been to provide thousands of safe and affordable
bamboo shelters.

All the building components of the shelters are pre-cut and
mounted at a plant close to the quake’s epicentre. Five
production lines employing 400 people produce all the components
necessary to build up to 200 quality units every day.

These shelter packages are then transported to the hardest hit
areas with a fleet of approximately 70 trucks where construction
takes place through cooperative efforts of IOM staff, skilled
construction workers, university students and the communities
themselves.

"Prefabrication has proven to be a highly successful strategy to
bring immediate and safe shelter relief to thousands of people who
were still living in tents," says Jules Korsten, the head of
IOM’s Yogyakarta sub-office.

In addition to its on-going construction activities, IOM has
also initiated a training programme with local university and NGO
partners to train villagers in 300 affected communities over the
next three months in earthquake safe construction.

Poor building standards and a lack of knowledge of earthquake
resistant construction methods was a major reason for the huge
damage to housing caused by the quake.

For more information, please contact:

Jules Korsten

IOM Yogyakarta

Tel. +62 812 101 88 19

E-mail: "mailto:jkorsten@iom.int">jkorsten@iom.int