Sleman to send help to Aceh regularly

Sleman to send help to Aceh regularly

YOGYAKARTA: In a bid to maintain the network and coordination it has built up in carrying out voluntary work in tsunami-hit Banda Aceh, Sleman will be sending volunteers to Aceh every 10 days, on two-week assignments.

"There will be an overlap when an earlier team of volunteers can meet with the following one to coordinate on what the next team needs to do," Sleman Regent Ibu Subiyanto said on Wednesday.

That way, he said, each newly arriving team would be more effective, as it would not need to start from scratch each time.

Sleman volunteers newly returned from Banda Aceh have reported that lack of coordination between teams in Aceh often rendered their work ineffective. Such a situation, they said, had often left new arrivals confused as to what to do.

Sleman has sent two teams of volunteers thus far. The first, comprising eight volunteers, was sent on Jan. 5 and returned on Jan. 18.

The second, comprising 16 volunteers, was sent on Jan. 15; the next, totaling 36 volunteers, will be sent on Jan. 25. -- JP