Companies facilitating tsunami aid effort: UN
Companies facilitating tsunami aid effort: UN
Jonathan Fowler and Sam Cage, Associated Press/Geneva
Private companies have stepped in to try to smooth aid deliveries in Indonesia, the country hardest hit by a tsunami around the Indian Ocean, the United Nations said. European and U.S. corporations, meanwhile, have kept up donations of money and food.
Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said on Tuesday that global delivery companies DHL and TNT are helping the relief effort - part of an initiative led by the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based private foundation that organizes a meeting of business and political leaders every year at Davos in the Swiss Alps.
"We're very, very happy with the level of corporate donations," World Health Organization crisis coordinator David Nabarro told The Associated Press. "It's making this a bit special, because it means there's a lot of stuff around."
Aid agencies are facing huge logistical problems as they seek to help millions of people suffering in the tsunami's wake. Physical damage to roads has slowed relief operations, and aid has backed up at over-stretched airports.
So much aid has been given that it is causing backlogs and relief coordinators are spending their time dealing with logistics logjams, Nabarro said.
DHL has offered the U.N. agency free use of warehouses in Jakarta, as the agency airlifts supplies to the Indonesian capital. TNT has given the agency free use of its fleet of trucks to transport supplies onward to Aceh province, at the epicenter of the disaster.
Several more multinational corporations announced aid donations Tuesday, including French telecommunications company Alcatel SA, which is giving US$1 million in aid to tsunami victims through its local subsidiaries to help restore fixed and mobile telephone networks.
The company is also matching dollar-for-dollar any personal donations made by its 1,400 local staff.
Dow Chemical Co. said it will contribute $5 million to the relief efforts and Swiss-based Nestle SA has given more than 12,000 boxes of food aid. U.K.-based telecom company Cable & Wireless PLC said it would donate $1 million for relief in the Maldives, in addition to support from its engineers in restoring the communications networks to the islands.
Other companies announcing aid packages were banking giant Wells Fargo & Co.; financial services firm TD Waterhouse USA; and Slovak oil refinery Slovnaft.
Some of the corporate givers who announced donations last week include Pfizer Inc., The Coca-Cola Co.; Exxon Mobil Corp.; Microsoft Corp.; and Citigroup Inc.
DHL and TNT are involved in a disaster relief coalition spearheaded by the World Economic Forum called the Disaster Resource Network. Founded by forum member companies in 2002, its mission is to "leverage the resources of the international business community to mitigate the human suffering associated with disasters."
The network stepped up its activities in response to the deadly earthquake that struck Bam, Iran, in December 2003, after a review showed that more aid would have reached survivors if relief groups had been able to overcome bottlenecks at smaller airports that lacked experienced personnel and proper equipment to handle massive aid deliveries.
The network set up airport emergency teams whose members are loaned by their employer and move into action when disaster strikes.
Besides helping UNHCR in Indonesia, the network has sent a team to manage aid cargoes at the Colombo airport in Sri Lanka. The company network also plans to turn its attention to the long- term harm done by the tsunami.
"We will convene international business leaders to look beyond emergency lifesaving activities to strategies for rebuilding livelihoods," said Bob Bellhouse, the network's head, who is on loan from New York-based engineering management firm Parsons- Brinckerhoff.