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.