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.