Muniarsih, food stall owner in Dengkeng village, Klaten

Munarsih, 36, is a mother of two children. Her husband, Ari Warsono, is a seasonal farm laborer, who has recently migrated with her full blessing to Jakarta from their village of Dengkeng in Klaten district, Central Java, to fi nd a better paying job. Together with their children, they have survived the earthquake that struck Central Java in May 2006.

Since February 2007, Munarsih, her 11-year-old daughter, 10-year-old son, and her 75-year-old
mother have moved from a makeshift tent to live in a T-Shelter house provided by the Cooperative
Housing Foundation (CHF) International. Hers is a 3.25x6-meter house, which she says has proved to be anti-earthquake and provided security and comfort to her whole family in the past few months. She and her husband assembled the house themselves, with some materials and half-assembled housing frames provided by the CHF. “We are still young, so we can work with our own hands, no need to cause further trouble to other
people in the village,” she says. Her husband even still managed to make himself available to help his fellow villagers make their housing frames based on CHF’s design. When she saw her husband planning to assemble their transitional house, Munarsih saw an opportunity to use a part of the new house as her stall (warung), something which she always hoped to have in the past.

So, she asked her husband to make a 2x3 meter space available for her in front of the house. Now, Munarsih has a place to sell her home-cooked rice meals and other assortments of snacks. In time, she says she will convert her stall into a full-scale grocery shop. She remembers she used to sell her goods in the heat of the sun, while sometimes having to run away from the rain. She also took sewing orders to help her husband make ends meet. She says she used to earn up to Rp 80,000 a day, enough for the whole family to eat decently. After the earthquake, however, her income has become smaller, just enough for her children to buy snacks at school’s break. That was the reason why her husband migrated to Jakarta, she says. She sees the bright side of it all, however. She says at least now she no longer has to worry about having to run from the rain with her merchandise. Now, she can also spend more time with her children.

That is really a luxury she could not have before, she believes. When hoping to live in a permanent house one day, Munarsih says she plans to stay in their TShelter
house for as long as possible. “This is a house we will always remember.”