Heavy rain that flushed Malang City Thursday (4/11/2021) afternoon caused flood disasters in several areas of Malang City. The impact of this flood caused material, physical, and psychological losses for the victims of the Malang city community who experienced it.
Residents’ houses that were swept away by the flood forced those living on the riverbank to evacuate to a safer place from flooding. No less than 400 residents living in RW 6 Senaputra Kec. Klojen took refuge in the recreation area of Senaputra and residents of RW 09 Kel. Jatimulyo Kec. Lowokwaru Malang City.
The Trauma Healing Team of the Malang City Police was deployed to the refugee camps to help the displaced victims. The team entitled Sama Friendly (Satgas Malang Raya Trauma Healing) provided psychological assistance services in the form of PFA (Psychological First Aid) to flood victims and also prepared temporary physical assistance in the form of food and drinks. This Trauma Healing assistance is carried out in a humanist and persuasive approach
Many of the refugee victims were adults, children under five, and school age who took refuge with the basic supplies they brought from their homes. Thus, Trauma Healing is intended to provide motivation and encouragement to refugee victims to avoid prolonged psychological trauma.
The team, consisting of 4 personnel from the Malang City Police, under the leadership of Aipda Muis S.psi, M.M and Aipa Indah Soviyana, S.psi visited the refugees one by one to provide education, analysis of stress levels and also solutions for handling them.
Inviting children to play and tell stories is meant to bring back their cheerful laughter. Hearing the complaints of the victims slightly reduced the psychological burden they felt due to this flood disaster. Children and toddlers have difficulty adapting to the current refugee environment due to the limited facilities available.
Many of them have difficulty sleeping at night and there are some who suffer from fever and colds. Clothing, diapers and milk supplies really helped them survive in the refugee camps. Ready-to-eat food also kept coming from volunteers and BPBD who set up emergency tents and public kitchens for displaced victims.