RI Red Cross deploys trained volunteers
M. Taufiqurrahman and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The scope and severity of devastation brought about by a monstrous tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra is so massive that many trained relief workers are badly needed.
The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) has deployed 832 relief workers to Aceh, consisting of trained volunteers recruited from the province prior to the deluge and those sent by PMI branches in neighboring provinces.
Head of PMI's blood transfusion and hospitals division Sujudi said on Thursday that the activities of PMI aid workers were confined to areas within and around the capital city Banda Aceh.
He said that the volunteers sent to Aceh were trained in survival skills and evacuation operations, who had helped in a relief operation in Bahorok, Langkat regency in North Sumatra in November last year, when a flash flood swept the area and killed over 180 people with 80 others still unaccounted for.
Similarly, the Indonesian Red Crescent (BSMI) sent 20 medics on Monday and would soon dispatch another 29 medics and volunteers.
BSMI spokesman Dharma Wijaya said that most of the medical workers and volunteers sent to the regions were well-trained. Some had just returned from a relief operation in quake-hit Nabire, Papua, earlier this month.
"At least, they will be prepared to face conditions in the field," he said.
BSMI also plans to erect an emergency field medical center in Banda Aceh to provide medical treatment for the victims in the aftermath of the calamity.
"The center is necessary to meet the glaring lack of medical workers to handle the thousands of victims there," BSMI chairman Basuki Supartono said.
Sujudi said that the shortage of volunteers in tsunami-hit areas had severely hampered relief programs and left the bulk of refugees without aid. "There is an abundant supply of food, but it has not reached survivors because there are not enough volunteers to distribute it."
The International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), of which PMI is a members, recently sent a 13-strong member team to Aceh to assess a more comprehensive relief program. PMI is expected to dispatch more volunteers to Aceh soon.
The late arrival of volunteers was due to the fact that priority is being given to Aceh-bound relief aid. Reports from numerous aid organizations said that large numbers of their workers were stalled in Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra.
In Bandung, West Java, 100 volunteers had to wait patiently for their turn to be flown to Aceh. "We have to wait for the go- ahead because the priority now is logistical aid," Andi Daging, leader of conservationist group Wanadri said.
In Pekanbaru, Riau, hundreds of volunteers coordinated by the Justice Prosperous Party (PKS) had to call off their journey to Aceh as there was no flight available.
However, at the same time a group of volunteers led by Riau governor Rusli Zainal were able to travel to Aceh on a chartered jet.