MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, JAKARTA – The five personnel of the Muhammadiyah Emergency Medical Team (EMT) returned to Indonesia after accomplishing humanitarian duties in Pakistan for three weeks as representatives of the Republic of Indonesia with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police (Polri), Ministry of Health, and University of Andalas.
The Muhammadiyah EMT was the only delegate from a non-governmental organization on this mission. A Press release received on Friday (4/11) mentioned the team consisting of dr. Eva Delsi as the coordinator, dr. Aslinar (a child specialist), nurse Purwani, nurse Siti Suryani and nurse Titik Ambarsari. They landed in Indonesia on Wednesday (2/11/2022).
In providing health services to flood-affected Pakistanis, dr. Eva Delsi said the team didn’t confront many significant obstacles in Pakistan because they have been involved in various disaster responses in Indonesia and abroad.
“The only problem was the language issue as they were placed in Sind Province where people speak Sind,” he said.
However, it could be overcome because of good coordination between various parties as the Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Special Branch of Muhammadiyah (PCIM) of Pakistan, the Indonesian Consulate General in Karachi, and Indonesian students in Karachi who accompanied the team.
“Alhamdulillah, the local health department assisted and facilitated us, and the Pakistani army always guided and protected us everywhere we were on duty,” Eva said.
The deployment of the Muhammadiyah EMT to Pakistan was part of Muhammadiyah’s humanitarian work in the international level. According to Deputy Chair of the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (MDMC) Rahmawati Husein revealed Muhammadiyah records for international humanity.
“Muhammadiyah has been engaged in peace missions. For example, at the beginning of the conflict of Bangsamoro, Dr. Sudibyo Markus contributed to make agreement, so did it in Thailand,” Rahmawati said on Friday (28/10).
Rahmawati Husein mentioned that humanitarian assistance as disaster and conflict responses commenced since the establishment of the MDMC. Before that, Muhammadiyah often played roles in peace agreement.
The humanitarian assistance was firstly undertaken in the Phillipines as the response to Typhoon Haiyan. “We independently provided health services in the Philippines for a month led by dr. Corona,” Rahmawati said.
Muhammadiyah’s next humanitarian mission was in Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. In Nepal, the Muhammadiyah humanitarian team worked together with a team from the Indonesian government.
Meanwhile, in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Muhammadiyah was a member of a humanitarian alliance with several other Indonesian humanitarian organizations.
For this humanitarian mission to Pakistan, Muhammadiyah was appointed as the only mass organization from Indonesia because it had an EMT meeting international standards of the World Health Organization (WHO).
