Palangkaraya, C Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - "Save the Children Indonesia" has held reunions for 86 children, who separated from their parents and family members due to the deadly earthquake and tsunami that hit Central Sulawesi Province on Sept 28, 2018.

"We keep monitoring the children who have reunited with their families," said Fajar Jasmin, a volunteer of this non-governmental organization, to Antara who contacted him from Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan Province on Tuesday.

For this purpose, Save the Children Indonesia deployed a team for supporting its family tracking and reunification program by searching for and find the family members of those children, he said.

Seventy eight of the 86 children had voluntarily been reunited while eight others would have been reunited by the Loving Buds Foundation (YSTC) or by YSTC by collaborating with other organizations, he said.

In reuniting the children with their parents and family members, the foundation thoroughly verified the data of all parties, and prepared a long-term caring program for those children, he said.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that destroyed many parts of Palu and the districts of Donggala and Sigi, Central Sulawesi Province, on Friday (September 28), left many people grieving and miserable.

They did not just lose their loved ones, but many also lost their lives. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that the catastrophe killed more than a thousand people.

Many of the dead victims were trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings or buried after losing their homes on the day the disaster occurred.

The recent deadly earthquake and tsunami also damaged at least 5,146 buildings as revealed by the preliminary result of calculation conducted by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Bandung Institute of Technology, and Asian Institute of Technology-Thailand`s joint team members by referring to the Pleiades Satellite imagery.

Reporting by Martha Herlinawati S, Rahmad Nasution

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2018