NGOs sacrifice personal interest to help Aceh

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For many humanitarian organizations, the tsunami tragedy that hit Aceh on the last Sunday of 2004 was a call for them to dedicate their work to the victims.

Communications manager of World Vision Indonesia (WVI) Hendro Suwito, told The Jakarta Post from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Thursday that he was in Sukabumi, West Java, when the disaster happened.

"I was with my family on vacation for New Year's. Initially, we were informed that there were 94 victims, however, the next day the death toll reached 4,000. At that time, I knew I could not stay put," said Hendro, who had intended on being on leave until Jan.4.

He reached Banda Aceh on Dec. 31, only a couple hours before New Year's celebrations got underway elsewhere.

Hendro saw great destruction, dead bodies everywhere, children screaming with horror and traumatized people looking for their family members.

"With 20 staff members at the moment (in Aceh), we are distributing rice and fortified biscuits from the World Food Programme," he told the Post.

The WVI distributed 25 tons of food on Tuesday, reaching 4,200 people; while on Wednesday, 17 tons of food reached 2,500 people.

"We are also planning to distribute family kits -- consisting of tents, sarongs, eating utensils and mosquito nets -- to some 10,000 people," said Hendro.

For the long-term program, WVI experts on health, water sanitation and child trauma would be in the field in the next few days to make a needs assessment, he said.

Hendro, on his fifth day in Banda Aceh, told the Post that World Vision had made an initial commitment to releasing around US$1 million in aid.

"However, as more and more victims are found, we will surely increase the funds," said Hendro, adding that aftershocks continue in Aceh, about four times a day.

On Thursday morning, an aftershock in Aceh measured 6.5 on the Richter scale, causing traumatized people there to be even more terrified.

Separately, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Banda Aceh Martin Unternahrer, told the Post that the destruction was unimaginable.

"I have never seen anything like this before. The scene of destruction ... Almost half of the town is now debris -- wood and concrete, with thousands of dead people beneath," Unternahrer said via cellular phone.

The ICRC has released a total of 26 million francs (US$23 million) for the victims of the tsunami disaster in Aceh.

Unternahrer said, at the moment they had some 55 staff members in the field, supporting the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in distributing aid, as well as evacuating bodies.

"We have a small warehouse of medicine in Aceh that survived the disaster, so now we are distributing the medicine through the PMI," he said.

The ICRC also set up shelters for displaced people, distributing family kits to some 1,800 families and set up a water supply.

"Our objective is to help people survive, as half of the town literally disappeared," said Unternahrer, saying that the south western coast was the worst affected area.

"We are facing logistics problems here. Like we do not have telephone lines to manage (logistics distribution) and that is quite frustrating," he said.

Meanwhile, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief's (Oxfam) regional media and advocacy coordinator for East Asia, Mona Laczo, said she could not sleep well at night as there were still several aftershocks.

However, she said she could not afford to get too emotional. "We should carry on with the job. So many people are in desperate need," said Laczo.

Oxfam is concentrating on the delivery of clean water as there was almost no water or toilets, according to her.

The organization had delivered some 20 tons of water and sanitation equipment for people in Aceh.

The organization has raised at least 21 million pound sterling (US$39.3 million) for the Asia tsunami victims.