Through the support of Elrha, Start Network, and the Asia Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) on this partnership, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) carried out “Community-Led Innovation Partnership” / CLIP. The Community-Led Innovation Partnership puts communities affected by crises at the heart of innovation efforts to support their resilience to crises. This project aims to increase accessibility, accountability, and inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in disaster preparedness and humanitarian response through supported community-led innovation. 


In implementing this activity, YEU launched IDEAKSI (ide inovasi aksi inklusi / idea innovation action inclusion) to seek inclusive innovation ideas in disaster management for local organizations with disabilities , older people, and other most at risk groups.


IDEAKSI is expected to be the door for inclusive innovation by local innovators in the context of disaster management in Indonesia using local wisdom and knowledge.


YEU is a work unit of YAKKUM (Christian Foundation for Public Health) which was established in 2001 with the mandate of inclusive and participatory disaster response and building community resilience through community-based disaster reduction and climate change adaptation practices.


YEU has a vision to ensure that disaster-affected communities can get the right to a dignified and sustainable life, through the synergy of humanitarian services and the development of a transformative community based on organization, accountability and quality.

 

WHAT IS CLIP?

 

CLIP “Community Led Innovation Partnership" - is a partnership effort to deliver community-based innovation. CLIP aims to improve accessibility, accountability, and inclusiveness for the most at risk groups in the emergency response and preparedness process through community-supported innovation.


The CLIP project is planned to have a 3 year duration, starting from April 2020 to March 2023 for the implementation of IDEAKSI 1.0 and continuing for IDEAKSI 2.0 from April 2023 to March 2025. This project is committed to supporting innovators at the community level to generate, test, and develop solutions to priority problems faced in the emergency response & disaster preparedness both at the local and national levels.

 

Through this program, it is hoped that there will be innovative solutions that enable the community, especially women, people with disabilities, older people, and other most at risk groups to participate and be actively involved in the process of disaster management and decision-making that affects their lives.

BERITA

 

Since December 2021, there have been slight differences in Tlogowatu, Tritis, and Wonorejo Sub-Villages located on the slope of Mount Merapi about 6 to 8 kilometers from the peak, especially during the night or when it is dark due to heavy clouds or thick fog. Some of the lanes/streets in the sub-villages now appear brighter than before. Between about 20 to 50 meters, there is a lamppost that seems different from the usual lamp post. In addition to providing lighting for its surroundings, the lamppost also has LED lights that turn on when there is movement nearby, and it emits beeping sound signals in a regular pattern.


Complying with the village contingency plan for Mount Merapi eruption, the lampposts are carefully installed towards the agreed location as the meeting point. Interestingly, if we walk following the lamppost, in some locations approaching the meeting point location, the beeping sound produced will be different, for example a lamppost installed in an evacuation monitoring post location. There are three different types of the beeping sound patterns, each signaling for the guiding lamppost, evacuation post, and final meeting point. The differences in tone and intensity of sound can be used as a benchmark to get to the exit or meeting point. Apparently, it is not just a lamppost, but a visual and sound-based self-evacuation guide system.


Mr. A. Lesto P. Kusumo, the leader of Merapi Rescue Community (MRC) explained that to live in a potential disaster-prone area requires us to be ready and always alert, and the mitigation system must be related to communities’ daily activities (familiarization), so gradually it will be part of their lives (habituation) and when disaster happens, self-evacuation shall happen by intuition.

In an eruption emergency, people tend to panic and get confused among communities. Based on MRC’s experiences, there is a high possibility that most community members will not remember the correct evacuation procedure. This condition is exacerbated by power outages in the location, which may cause many people to take the wrong route and not reach the meeting point timely, in which time is crucial during the emergency evacuation process.


The self-evacuation guide system is also designed to particularly support the people with disabilities, older people, and other persons at risk. To do that, it must meet the following requirements:

  • It has independent power supply that does not depend on centralised electricity supply,

  • The power supply energy that can last a long time,

  • A guiding system that is active even during bright situation (at the minimum) and especially during dimmed and dark situation,

  • It works automatically by sensors and inclusive, in which the guide system must work visually and audibility by emitting directional sound, and

  • The guide system must be able to direct the community to the agreed Meeting Point.


An added value of this system is it encourages protection for women and other persons at risk, as in providing more public security during the night. In the project monitoring discussion in March, Ms. Winta Tridhatu Satwikasanti from Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) mentioned that the women and older women feel safe when they walk along the side road where the self-evacuation guide system helps them to show the direction and provides sense of security because of the lights, directional sound, and CCTV camera added to the one installed in evacuation meeting point.


MRC builds the self-evacuation guide system that is powered by solar cells and equipped with sensors that activate when the surrounding light is dim or dark, the lights and directional sounds will automatically turn on. So that in a disaster situation and the electricity goes out, the community continues to evacuate independently to the meeting point with light and sound guidance. It will also support the search and rescue team, in which they can focus on the most vulnerable community members such as those with zero mobility, chronic diseases, and certain disabilities that do not allow them to self-evacuate.


In their journal, “Guiding Evacuation System Implementing Visual and Audio Cues as an Early Warning System”, for the Seminar Geodynamics & Built Environment 2022, MRC team concluded, “A disaster situation is a complex situation and the steps to solving the problem must be looked at thoroughly involving aspects of users, environment, activities. The aim of this study is to provide an inclusive self-guided design to the assembly point to reduce the number of victims.”[1]



Satwikasanti, W. T., Kusumo, A. L. P., Wibowo, T. A., Prakoso, P. G., Pudyastanto, S. B., Timur, S.M., & Tegar, A. (2022). Sistem Jalur Pandu Evakuasi Berbasis Visual dan Suara dalam Mitigasi Bencana sebagai Sarana peringatan Dini. Proceeding Seminar Geodynamics & Built Environment.