U.S. groups join up to send medical supplies
U.S. groups join up to send medical supplies
WASHINGTON (JP): A group of American business and nonprofit
organizations is sending US$1.7 million in medical supplies to
Indonesia to help the crisis-stricken country.
Mark Schlansky, a Boeing executive and the chairman of Uplift
International, said the group had identified certain essential
materials, such as insulin, antibiotics, analgesics and syringes,
in short supply at Indonesian hospitals.
Uplift International is a nonprofit organization that
specializes in medical airlifts.
Schlansky told reporters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday that
the three metric tons of medical supplies would be delivered free
of charge by a Federal Express MD-11 airplane.
The plane is scheduled to arrive at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta
International Airport on Sept. 11.
A team from Uplift International will escort the supplies from
the airport to Indonesian hospitals to make sure they are
delivered to the right destinations, he said.
"We will have our people go with it all the way right to the
hospitals."
Four public hospitals are due to receive the aid: Cipto
Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta; Dr. Soetomo Hospital in
Surabaya, East Java; Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital in
Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi; and Prof. Dr. W.Z. Johannes
Hospital in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.
Schlansky said Uplift International had been working with the
Indonesian government and the World Health Organization to
identify which hospitals were in greatest need based on
geographical and distributional systems.
Garuda Indonesia and Merpati Nusantara Airlines will fly the
supplies to the hospitals outside Jakarta for free.
Schlansky said he hoped such medical aid would continue on a
regular basis, adding that his organization was currently making
another assessment for a second aid shipment to the country.
More than two dozen U.S. companies are participating in the
project, including American International Group, Boeing,
Caterpillar, Federal Express, Ford Motor Co., Goodyear Tire &
Rubber, Mobil Oil and Procter & Gamble.
Joining Uplift in the project are Project Hope, the U.S.-ASEAN
Business Council and the U.S.-Indonesia Society. (Yenni Djahidin)