Poundbury

The earthquake and flood disaster in South Asia probably harmed Indonesia, and in particular the island of Sumatra, more than any other place in the region. Several of the villages and towns are quite remote, cut off because all communications, including rail, road and telephone-links, have been destroyed, and now without fresh water.

The Indonesian government said on December 31, 2004 that it had given up counting the numbers of victims. They can now only provide estimates, and because of the fear of diseases and epidemics, bodies are buried in mass graves as soon as possible.

Aid work is extremely difficult. Five days after the catastrophe large numbers of people still have no water, food, tents or medicine. Roads are down, and the need for helicopters and fuel is huge. Indonesia also seems to be the country where the problems involved in reaching the affected sites are greatest. It is even difficult to distribute the hundreds of tons of supplies that are already in the country to the areas in greatest need. This is largely due to lack of fuel, destroyed roads and poor co-ordination with the military authorities.

Transportation by plane or ship is excluded: the harbors are destroyed, and the only airport in the region does not have the capacity to handle planes from all over the world efficiently.

Estimates say that the disaster has claimed more than 100 000 victims.

The forgotten catastrophe? Terry Young fears that Indonesia and Sumatra will be the forgotten catastrophe. We are aware of countries such as Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.

They are frequently in the news, and Thailand in particular is a wealthy country with very good health-care, hospitals, and so on. Most of the western tourists affected by the disaster were located in these countries as well. However, the present situation demands instant and long term aid, and not only to the countries with which we are familiar and do business with. Undoubtedly, what we all want is to help everyone everywhere, but good intentions are one thing, practice is another.

Therefore, don't forget any country or people affected by this disaster, including Indonesia and Sumatra.

Informative article from The Guardian Internet edition

Terry Young therefore encourages you to support the aid work in Indonesia. He also encourages mailing your suggestion of what you and I, what everybody can do to raise funds. People want to help, but what can we do? We feel so helpless. What can "little me" do?

Here is what you can do!

GIVE AN ONLINE DONATION TO ONE OF THE FINE ORGANIZATIONS LISTED BELOW

Promote concerts and cultural events in your home town. Ask artist, owners of rock clubs and other venues, PA systems owners, and others to support at no cost the event and donate the profits to the aid in Indonesia. Sell tickets for the event, and also collect funds during the event. Ask local artist such as art painters and others to sell or auction some of their works during the event and donate that money as well.
Send all funds to organizations you trust and witch you know has Indonesia as a prioritizing.
Collect funds in your neighborhood, at your school and job, organize collections of funds "all over the place" which first of all means in the environments you belong to both private and professional and therefore knows.
Make something, any handicraft, or cakes, or biscuits. Get others to make things. Anything. Sell what you make, and donate the money.
Use your imagination. There's a lot you can do!
Mail us your suggestion of what we ALL can do to contact@terryyoung.net

Your suggestion will be listed here.

Make your online donation to one of these fine organizations:

International Red Cross online donation

Save the children - online donation
USA | UK

UNICEF - (on-line donation possible)

Medecins Sans Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders
Online donations

International Salvation Army - online donations

Care International UK online donations
Care International USA online donations

PLAN USA online donation
PLAN UK online donation

SOS Childrens Villages