WEEKLY SUMMARY

Field Operations:

AMURT/AMURTEL branched into a wider spectrum of activities this week contributing in a small yet significant way to the over-all relief efforts.

Dadas Pavanananda and Ratnesh have been assisting UNICEF in the distribution of their school-in-a-box kits to enable the children to have some school materials with which to re-commence their education. This week they covered 18 schools in Banda Aceh.

Dada Pavanananda and Didi Manika also assisted UNICEF in the assessment of the damage done to various schools in Banda Aceh and covered 23 schools in their three day assessment.

Dada Devashuddhananda has been involved in assisting the International Medical Corps team of doctors in the main hospital in Banda Aceh, Zaina Ruma Sakit. At the same time he is upgrading his medical skills.

Dada Dinakar performed two minor relief operations on the West Coast. He provided 480 liters of drinking water and some fortified biscuits to 150 tsunami survivors who were on foot towards Banda Aceh in search of relatives. Dada also distributed 1 ton of food in Lhoong and 3 tons of relief supplies in Pa’anga south of Calang benefiting a total of 2500 people in coordination with a local NGO Gemma 9.

Didi Manika took 3 days psycho-social training from the North West Medical Team and will be certified by them today following her field training. This will enable her to perform better counseling to traumatized mothers and children in the camps.

Our camp activities continued in Neuheun camp where a talented clown kept the 200 children enthralled with two performances on separate days. We distributed small packet of sweets and biscuits to another 150 children.

We are attempting to offer the government the housing model of Brother Krsada whose mobile homes are being used for 130 tsunami survivors in Ranong province, Thailand. The Indonesian government is requesting 10,000 household units from the private sector. The figure of IDP’s (Indonesian Displaced Persons) remains a staggering 400,000!

Meanwhile we have continued our survey of the brick making kilns in Neuheun village as well as the damaged and destroyed homes with a view to completing the project proposal for these 3 closely linked projects, all in the same village.

The GTZ of Germany has accepted in principle to support our brick manufacturing industry in Neuheun. We are still preparing all of the details of the costing for 25 destroyed homes and five damaged homes. Our intention is for GTZ to accept the entire package.

Our two project proposals for the Jr. High School and Primary School in Banda Aceh city is nearly completed and we will approach donors next week for them.

During this period the AMURTEL team increased to three as two more Didis arrived (SWWS Didi Ananda Vijay and Did Hema) and AMURT volunteers reached up to 10.


General Over-All Situation:

It is a common occurrence to experience the ground rolling as over 1200 aftershocks have succeeded the Dec. 26th earthquake. It is no wonder that psycho-social counseling is an important component of the recovery phase! On several occasions we didn’t know whether to remain in the building or to go out as the aftershocks last for 5 seconds.

The food relief situation has improved considerably and all areas are covered. However only basic food of rice, noodles and biscuits are provided, so the survivors would be pleased to get additional supplies of fish, oil, salt, sugar and vegetables.

Our regular attendance at all of the UN coordinated meetings as well as get togethers of the German and Canadian Embassies are gradually earning AMURT a face and position in the entire operation.

It seems that this is the largest operation in terms of income promised to tsunami survivors. There is huge scope for relief and rehabilitation work for at least one year.


Our Needs:

Unskilled Persons may participate in city and village clean ups.
Midwives are highest priorities in the spontaneous camps where there are 800 births a month.
Skilled Office persons for Excel, Word, Outlook Express, accounts and filing work
Psychologists for psycho-social counseling (must speak Bahasa Indonesia)
Child Animators, educators
Civil engineers, Water Engineers, Architects
Handyman for repairing Homes
Cash to continue the relief and rehabilitation efforts.


Dada shiilabhadrananda, Banda Aceh