UNICEF to send 250 child center volunteers to tsunami-hit Aceh
UNICEF to send 250 child center volunteers to tsunami-hit Aceh
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
UNICEF is planning to send around 250 Indonesian volunteers to
Aceh to take care of the children in tsunami-affected areas,
according to a senior official at the Office of the State
Minister for Women's Empowerment.
Rahmat Santika said on Wednesday the plan was part of the
United Nations Children Fund's plan to build 20 child centers in
Aceh, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami. Ten
centers are already in operation.
"We have sent 201 volunteers already and will send 250
additional volunteers," said Rahmat, on the sidelines of a
ceremony held to launch a two-day training program for volunteers
organized by the National Family Planning Agency (BKKBN).
He said that there are 638,000 refugees in Aceh of which one-
third or at least 150,000 are children.
UNICEF works in coordination with several institutions to
develop child centers including Muhammadiyah (the country's
second-largest Muslim organization), the Ministry of Social
Services, the Ministry of Public Works, the Office of State
Minister for Women's Empowerment, and BKKBN.
"The centers will handle the registration, tracking and
reunification, psycho-social intervention, temporary
accommodation and children's rights protection for around 200-400
unaccompanied or orphaned children in each center", said UNICEF's
project officer, Astrid Dionisio.
"Children and women are among the most vulnerable group to
post-Tsunami trauma. They are already experiencing depression
which needs special handling especially for the under-fives as
trauma can affect their personalities in the future," Astrid
said.
UNICEF that funds most of the program, provides a daily
allowance of Rp 300,000 (about US$33) to each volunteer for
living expenses including shelter, food, shoes and other needs.
"We want to stress that the money is not a daily salary for
the volunteers as some people have misunderstood. We want the
volunteers to be self-supporting and they need living expenses
while they are there to enable them to work well. This
misunderstanding had destroyed the image of some volunteers," she
said.
Sudibyo of Muhammadiyah said the allowance was paid by UNICEF
to make sure that the volunteers were not dependent on money from
those they came to help.
"I always remember a poster I saw stuck on a door in a refugee
camp in Cambodia that said: Are you here with solutions or are
you part of the problem," he said.