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.