When news reached the Netherlands that Indonesia, Sri Lanka

When news reached the Netherlands that Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand had been hit by the tsunami, a team of foreign ministry relief aid specialists got together with embassy personnel in Jakarta to assess the needs of the victims and what the Netherlands could do to help them.

The Netherlands asked the Red Cross, UN agencies and other development organisations to deliver relief aid such as food, medicines, tents and blankets. In the weeks following the tsunami, the Dutch government kept donating money to aid agencies assisting the people in Aceh and Sri Lanka on the Netherlands' behalf. A total of 35 million euros was committed for first relief aid, (lokale munt/dollar - wat kan ik het beste gebruiken, Usha?].

This enabled aid organisations to provide food and medicines, tents and temporary housing, body bags, clean water and basic sanitation facilities, and to clean up and repair the hospital in Bandah Aceh. UNICEF and other organisations received money for child protection, reunification of separated children and psychosocial treatment.

Picking up the thread as soon as possible is an important way to deal with traumatic experiences. This is why the Netherlands also chose to allot funds for cleaning up and rebuilding schools, so children could carry on with their daily lives. People of Aceh were hired to carry out most of the relief works, thus helping to alleviate the unemployment brought on by disaster.

In addition, the Dutch government made an airplane available to transport relief goods, provided air traffic controllers for the airport of Bandah Aceh and donated material to rebuild some of the 110 bridges that were destroyed by the tsunami.

Instead of using separate Dutch aid channels, development minister Agnes van Ardenne decided to hand funds directly over to organisations such as UNICEF, Red Cross, and UNHCR. These organisations possessed the expertise necessary to provide instant and efficient relief aid.

Minister Van Ardenne visited Indonesia in January 2005 for a donor conference. In February, foreign minister Bernard Bot visited the Tsunami region, including Aceh, to express his condolences and to see how relief and reconstruction work was being carried out.