Who to give the money to in Aceh

Who to give the money to in Aceh

I've just spent about ten days up in Aceh in one of the
Lhoknga camp sites in an attempt to come up with some projects
that will get a few people up and running into a new livelihood.
We all know these people have lost everything -- family, house,
community, social standing and livelihood.

We have about Rp 100 million that was raised by hashers who
supported a run in Medan at the end of January 2005 and this
money must be spent on something in Aceh. Since then the mainly
Chinese committee (who must decide where to spend this money),
has dithered and dallied about what to do. They didn't like my
projects because they were clearly directed toward helping
individuals as their culture (losing face) and their strong
belief in corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) dominated
their thinking.

Ironically, it is individuals who need to be helped and of
course there are thousands of them. The committee members are
worried about losing face as to give to individuals (who have no
great standing anywhere in this country) will not bring forward
the right response from donors -- who are mostly Chinese.

How shallow and misguided can people be, because this money is
in fact all about helping people (individuals) and nothing at all
to do with how a committee will look in the eyes of donors? Sure
it must not be wasted, but to give this amount to a large NGO
(the more preferred Chinese route) will surely see about 40
percent of that cash going down the drain to inflated
administration costs. People are perhaps brainwashed into
thinking that anything that means giving something to someone for
nothing is a really bad idea, and yet that is exactly what is
needed.

There is also a committee problem about having the
responsibility to spend this money -- hence the dithering and the
lack of projects on the table. What people need in Aceh is a
helping hand and now, and although a small organization like an
Indonesian hash cannot help everyone, it can in fact help a few
individuals who have lost everything in their lives.

I have to admit that I was disappointed and somewhat
embarrassed to be at that committee meeting, not only because of
the outcome, but more because its members did not have the
courtesy to really listen.

DAVID WALLIS
Medan, North Sumatra