Volunteers ready to oversee aid

Volunteers ready to oversee aid

JAKARTA: Some 221 people have passed a crash course to work as
volunteers to help the government oversee the distribution of
official aid for least developed villages across Indonesia.

The volunteers, all university graduates, are former
recipients of scholarships from the Super Semar Foundation which
is headed by President Soeharto.

They were trained at the education and training center of
Kopassus, the Army's elite force, in Cimahi, West Sumatra.

They will be deployed to the villages beginning July 1, the
Antara news agency reported.

They are part of some 4,000 volunteers the government hopes to
deploy. Besides the foundation, the volunteers are also being
recruited by the Ministry of Transmigration and Ministry of
Education and Culture and local district offices.

The government is distributing packets of Rp 20 million to
many villages this year.