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.