OIC pledges $145m for Aceh orphans

OIC pledges $145m for Aceh orphans report

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

The world's biggest grouping of Islamic nations has pledged US$145 million for Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province, to be spent largely on children orphaned by the Dec. 26 disaster, a report said on Sunday.

The money will finance various projects over a four to five year period, chair of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

The OIC, along with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), has already identified five projects to fund, including a home for orphans in Aceh. Work to build the shelter will start in three month's time, Badawi said.

"The OIC and IDB have made the necessary contacts in Indonesia. What is important now is to identify where, and how big the shelter should be," he said.

Abdullah was speaking in Saudi Arabia after a meeting with a delegation from the IDB and the OIC. He is in Saudi Arabia for a three-day visit which ends on Sunday.

In January, the OIC set up an alliance to rescue tsunami orphans in Aceh from foreign influences following reports that missionary groups would place them in Christian children's homes.

More than 230,000 people are believed to have died in Aceh when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake unleashed a tsunami that devastated the coastline in December.

Abdullah said Indonesia had agreed to allow the private sector to handle some of the projects under the OIC banner, Malaysia's national news agency Bernama reported.

Last month, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said OIC members had made separate contributions to help tsunami victims in countries hit by the disaster, and that the IDB had pledged US$500 million in soft loans for reconstruction efforts in Aceh and other places.