By Bartolomeus Marsudiharjo

"The book car is coming!" shout several students at an elementary school in Timbalun, Bungus Timur in Indonesia, as World Vision's mobile library pulls into the school yard where now only a tent serves for a classroom. More than 2,000 school buildings collapsed following the quake which hit western Sumatra in September.

As part of World Vision’s emergency response, mobile libraries are visiting communities where schools have been damaged or destroyed. They also stop at World Vision’s child-friendly spaces (CFS) in the earthquake zone—these are special places where children are encouraged to express their fears, anxieties, anger and other difficult emotions through a range of creative activities including drawing, singing and dancing.

The mobile libraries each carry about 500 children books, and have been a significant part of the relief response for child survivors. Several of the books are about how to cope with disaster. Besides books, the mobile library brings a DVD player that plays a children’s educational film about how to react when a disaster happens.

Dealing with disaster

Around 70 students are eager to see what the driver, Suparso, will play on the 21-inch monitor that is set up in the rear window of the van. Bagas and Menur, two characters in the film, offer many tips on how to respond to disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or fires. The film is followed by a light-hearted question and answer session, with candies awarded to those who answer correctly.

For sixth grader Rama Yuza Indra, not only did his school collapse, so did his family home. Rama was playing football in his yard when the powerful earthquake took place. His mother ran out of the family home and Rama’s younger sister was right behind her.

"I was spontaneously crying, seeing my house collapse…my mother was also crying," Rama says, who now lives in a tent. "I am still afraid of the possibility of aftershocks. But I know, if another earthquake happens, I must run out of the house as soon as possible," he explains.

More than 1,000 people died and more are still believed to buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings or landslides.