NGOs sacrifice personal interest to help Aceh

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.