Indonesia is a country prone to recurrent natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and eruption of volcanoes. Disaster preparedness at both national and regional levels is much in need, furthermore almost non-existent in the perspective of mental health.

The areas of Mount Merapi – Indonesia’s most active volcano, Palu – hit by a deadly earthquake and tsunami in 2018, and the vicinities of Yogyakarta, are risk red zones that have recently undergone major and multiple disasters, and likely to go through more in the future. Our objective is to support disaster preparedness in bringing skills for risk mitigation, emotional healing and resilience to the communities who live there. 

Dr Beth Hedva has provided training to psychologists and social recovery workers in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami disaster, and she is still regularly teaching Transpersonal Psychology at the University of Tarumanagara in Jakarta. 

We wish to expand this action into a self-replicating train-the-trainers model, flowing through academic students down to grassroot communities. Training workshops will be organized and our books will be translated in Indonesian to serve as a guide for the new trainees to teach self-help tools within communities.

We will liase further with local universities and grassroot organizations with the help of Yasmin Winnett, school coordinator at Sekolah Gunung Merapi, a community learning centre serving vulnerable communities living on the flanks of Mount Merapi