Mount Merapi Volcano Church social action charity Caritas has rushed to distribute thousands of face-masks and provide eye drops to people living in Indonesia’s Semarang Archdiocese following a series of volcanic eruptions.
Considered one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, Mount Merapi, in central Java, has seen at least nine eruptions over the last month, sending steam and ash clouds 6,000 meters into the sky, seriously affecting air quality for thousands of people.
The last eruption of the 2,930-meter volcano occurred last week.
As of Monday, a three-kilometre exclusion zone around the mountain was yet to be lifted.
Fr Martinus Sutomo, deputy director of the local Caritas branch, said at least 15,000 masks and eye drops had been distributed to those living in the volcano’s vicinity, and who had complained of the air quality and irritation to people’s eyes as a result of the ash.
“We will continue to distribute them until the alert status returns to normal,” he said.
Cooperation
Distribution of the aid was carried out with the cooperation of 11 parishes in the archdiocese, including St Mary of Lourdes Parish in Magelang district.
Tarsisius Sugiono, a parish volunteer, said his parish established four distribution points.
“We have given out masks and eye drops to school students and to people living in dozens of villages within a six-kilometre radius of Mount Merapi,” he said.