04 March 2007

Following some delays due to flooding, first of all affecting the road to Aceh in Sumatra, and then later in Jakarta when most of the city was submerged, we got the cake making equipment on the road via courier a few weeks ago. See courier for details. The goods arrived with Pak Dadek in Meulaboh last week and we're now waiting on an update from him.

We received a donation of ₤500 from J.J. Kearney via my dad Peter. J.J. was a teacher in Peter's school. Here's a message from Peter:

Hello Ciaran,
I will soon be calling with J.J. again and I will give him details about your website. It would obviously be great if you could add him onto your donations list and even give him a special mention for his £500 donation.
You should also possibly mention that he was a former teacher from my old college days and as someone whom I had befriended during recent visits to a local hospital where he has been in long-term confinement.
Peter.

He asked that we use this to help the earthquake victims in Yogyakarta who are still struggling to fix things after the earthquake last May, and for the most part have been totally forgotten about.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

24 December 2006

Emmanuel Church, West Wickham in Kent has raised ₤1191 over the last two years since the tsunami. Their latest fundraising activity in August raised ₤345. See fundraising for details.

This time we did not have enough funds to send a full truck to Aceh and go there ourselves. In the past year a courier service has started running between Jakarta and Aceh so we decided that we would to send things to Aceh using the courier.

We contacted Pak Dadek and in line with his Livelihood and Social Revitalisation initiatives, he requested that we buy cake making equipment. He said that this would be given to widows to allow them to bake and then sell cakes for a living. So we went shopping for mixers and other utensils. See mixers for details. We'll update spend report shortly with a breakdown of the spending.

Unfortunately until now we have not been able to send off the cake making equipment as the courier is unable to go there. North Sumatra and Aceh has experienced heavy flooding over the last few weeks and some parts are three metres deep in water. The latest news yesterday is that in one village alone over 70 people are missing.

We're in contact with the courier and as soon as the flood recedes and the road becomes passible, we'll send everything off. We'll give you an update as soon as we get our stuff on the road.

The news from Aceh is that conditions are not improving as fast as they should be. Many people remain in tents and other forms of temporary shelter. Unfortunately bureaucracy remains to be one of the biggest obstacles.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

04 July 2006

We had a successful trip to Meulaboh on the long weekend starting 25 May. See Meulaboh for details.

The earthquake in Yogyakarta happened while we were in Aceh. We couldn't believe the news when we heard it. Just as Aceh seemed to be making some small improvement we have another disaster.

Novi is traveling to Yogyakarta tomorrow morning with some of her friends to distribute some aid. If anyone wants to help out with a donation please let us know as soon as possible.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

21 May 2006

We started to prepare for our latest trip to Aceh this week. See fifth trip preparation for details. We hoping to send off a truck later today (Sunday) and we will fly to Medan to meet it on Thursday.

In addition to selling a painting and a few other contributions, we got a very generous offer of 1000 AUD yesterday. This gives us a reasonable budget of approximately 38 million Rupiah ( ₤2180 or 4100 USD). I'll give a detailed update on the finances in the next few days.

We've relisted the painting that didn't sell last time and added a few more. A few people have shown interest in paintings in the last week but did not get a chance to bid. If you are interested and for any reason are not able to use ebay, please let me know and I will bid on your behalf. Here are the paintings:

Click here to bid	Click here to bid	Click here to bid	Click here to bid

Please click on the pictures and make a bid. Click on art for sale for the complete set.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

14 May 2006

We've booked to go to Aceh on Thursday 25 May. We're running about six weeks later than planned as we had to take some time out to do some other things. It looks like this will be our last trip to Aceh in this format at least as we are no longer able to raise sufficient funds. Despite this we're looking forward to go back to Meulaboh to see how things have progressed. I'll give an update on our plans in the next few days.

In the mean time I've resubmitted the paintings that didn't sell the last time. I've reduced the starting price to ₤20 and the postage to ₤12.

Please click on the pictures and make a bid.

Click on art for sale for the complete set.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

05 March 2006

Still no bids for the two latest paintings that we've put on ebay. There's still a few hours left today. Click on the pictures below to bid. If you're not able to use ebay send me an email and I will bid for you.

We've now updated the accounts with the latest figures. See donations, GBP account, USD account and IDR account for details. I still need to update the exchange rates: the Rupiah has strengthened significantly in the last few months. We have approximately 30 million Rupiah (USD 3260 or ₤1860) for our next trip to Aceh.

We've been in touch with Pak Dadek, the Camat in Meulaboh. He said that they still need sewing machines for widows to allow them to start earning a living for themselves and to become self sufficient. We plan to go shopping for sewing machines during the week. We'll keep you updated.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

26 February 2006

After a bit of a break we're back in business again. ebay finally activated my account about a month ago. In the end the problem was that they were not able to validate my address in Indonesia. I was able to sort this out by faxing a copy of my passport and a bank statement with address details. It took quite a few attempts and a lot of time to do as they kept replying that they could not read the documents.

In the mean time a few things have happened. First of all the the buyer of one of the paintings sold just before I got kicked out of ebay sent us ₤500 instead of the ₤50 final price. Secondly Emmanuel Church in West Wickham, Kent raised ₤601 for us via fundraising activities over Christmas. This means that we should have just about enough to fund our next trip to Aceh. I will update the accounts shortly to see exactly where we are.

We haven't had much news from Meulaboh recently. According to press reports the reconstruction has not progressed at the pace that was planned and that in general the people are even worse off a year on. This is motivating us to keep on doing what we can. Of course we need support to fund us in our efforts. We are planning our next trip to Aceh already, hopefully some time in the coming weeks, and we'll give an update on this when we have something concrete to report. In the mean time here's the two paintings again that didn't make it the last time.

Please click on the pictures and make a bid.

Click on art for sale for the complete set.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

06 December 2005

Unfortunately eBay very abruptly terminated my account on Saturday with giving me a reason other than some standard blather about breaking the terms of their user agreement, sending everyone an email making me out to be some sort of menace to the online community, and then sending me a bill including charges for my latest listings which lasted all of ten minutes! The only thing that I thought that could have triggered this was that I changed my registration from my parents' address in Northern Ireland to our Indonesian address. eBay have finally responded to my emails to say that they kicked me out because they couldn't validate my Indonesian address and that if I send them a copy of my passport and a recent bank statement with my address on it, they'll consider reinstating me! Bit of a heavy-handed approach to things.

Before getting kicked off eBay we managed to sell four of the six paintings that we listed for ₤50, ₤200, ₤50 and ₤50 giving a total of ₤350. We're happy with this as it's slightly ahead of our target.

We hope to be back in action on eBay in the next day or two once eBay sort their act out. I'll resubmit the two listings that eBay cancelled and submit a few more. We'll give you an update as soon as this happens.

Comments on this update:

27 November 2005

Two more for today:

Click on art for sale for the complete set.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

26 November 2005

A few more pictures for sale on ebay. Please click on the pictures for descriptions and to make a bid:

Click on art for sale for the complete set.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

23 November 2005

I've put our second painting on ebay. It shows houses engulfed by the sea following the tsunami with a boat above rooftops and people clinging to debris.

You can click on the pictures below to go to ebay and make a bid:

I've updated the spend report for our fourt trip. See spend report for details. I'll post an update of the results with photos shortly.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

20 November 2005

It's been a long time since our last update as we've been busy with other thing over the last two months. Also we decided to hold off until now on selling the paintings as we thought we might get better prices once everyone is doing their Christmas shopping.

The water supply for our toilets in the camp in Meulaboh was completed in September. I have some photos and intend to post an update in the next few days, together with the updated finances.

For now this update is just to let you know that we've just put the first of our paintings on ebay. It's a painting by an artist called Safna. It shows people in the town of Meulaboh trying desperately to reach a mosque to climb onto the roof for safety.

Click on the following picture or text to make your bid now on ebay:

As I said, I plan to post a proper update in the next few days.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

26 August 2005

As you've probably noticed we have a new domain name http://www.directaid4aceh.org. Please update your bookmarks.

After a slow start we're making reasonable progress on our latest project. See after 2 weeks for details of our progress and some photos. We hope to have everything finished this weekend.

I've uploaded some pictures of the prizewinners of the Ladies and Gents Tsunami Appeal Open Stableford. See fund-raising for details.

I've uploaded Pak Dadek's presentation that he passed to me a few weeks when he came to our house for dinner. For best effect and if your want to run it in slide show, you need to use Internet Explorer as it makes use of ActiveX components. Sorry about that if you don't use IE (I use Firefox) but that's Microsoft for you! Some points of interest are Livelihood starting on slide 32 and Social Revitalisation starting from slide 44. Social Revitalisation covers rebuilding the cultural aspects of life and the art exhibitition is featured here. We see the art as more than simply a cultural activity. We can buy the art so that the artists get money and at the same time we can use the profits to fund some of the project under Livelihood.

Total donations to date has increased slightly to now stand at ₤13,743 (USD 25,626 or 228 million Rupiah). See donations for details. We've spent a total of 210 million Rupiah which means we have approximately 18 million Rupiah remaining.

We still have capacity for more donations so please feel free to contribute.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

17 August 2005

We flew to Medan on Friday 5 August. Later that evening we then set off by car to Meulaboh. Seventeen hours later we arrived in Meulaboh. We only got to spend seven hours in Meulaboh as we had to get back to Medan to catch return flights to Jakarta. See Meulaboh for details of our trip.

I haven't had time to update the spend report and accounts so I'll do this as part of the next update. I hope to post an update of the progress in Meulaboh in the next few days.

We've have quite a bit of interest in the tsunami paintings. We didn't get time to go looking for the artists who contributed to the art exhibition but the good news is that Dian, who has stayed behind in Meulaboh to manage everything there for us, has successfully located a few of them and bought a few samples. We hope to have these on sale soon.

Finally, I've fixed the comments form if you wish to leave a message.

Comments on this update:

04 August 2005

We kicked of our fourth project this week by sending a truck loaded with building materials off to Meulaboh on Tuesday. See preparation for details. We're aiming to extend the communal toilets by adding two additional units. We also plan to drill a well to have a better water supply. Novi and I are flying to Medan Friday evening and from there we'll drive to Meulaboh. Dian is coming with us again to stay there and keep an eye on things.

Pak Dadek, the camat (local goverment administrator) for Meulaboh was in Jakarta last week. He was taking a badly needed break and visiting some relatives. While he was here he came round to our house for dinner with his wife and his three-year old niece Annisa who they have adopted. Annisa lost her mother to the tsunami and her father, Pak Dadek's brother, passed away only a few weeks ago due to illness.

Pak Dadek is coordinating all the NGOs working in Meulaboh. He passed me some slides that he presented to the NGOs with plans and progress that they're making on reconstruction. I intend to upload these slides once I've had a chance to format them. In the mean time I've extracted some pictures that I thought were interesting. They are photos of an art exhibition by tsunami survivors that was held recently in Meulaboh. See art exhibition for the pictures. If anyone is interested in supporting these local artist by buying some of their paintings please send me an email at mailto:contact@directaid4aceh.org or SMS me on +62811987348. We intend to have a look for one or two ourselves.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

12 July 2005

This update is long overdue but as you've guessed we haven't really been active over the last two or three months. This is partially due to funds being fairly low and also we had a holiday and I was quite busy with work after that. In the meantime we've allowed funds to accumulate and the good news is that we now have enough for another trip to Aceh.

We've received quite a few more contributions. Rochdale Music Service had a choir concert and raised ₤245. Also my Mum and Dad, Ursula and Peter ran their ladies and gents open golf tournament at Newtownstewart Golf Club last Friday and managed to raise over ₤2000. This ₤2000 includes ₤450 from green fees, ₤600 from a draw, ₤450 in additional donations from the members, and ₤500 from Gibson Primary School in Omagh. The school headmaster played in the golf tournament and has kindly offered ₤500 which had been previously raised by the school via fundraising activities. I'll upload some photos of the golf in the next few days,

So the total donations to date now stand at ₤13,609 (USD 25,388 or 226 million Rupiah). See donations for details. We've spent a total of 172 million Rupiah which means we have approximately 54 million Rupiah remaining for our next trip. We still have capacity for more donations so please feel free to contribute.

We currently looking at what we can do for our next trip to Aceh and when we can go there. We're planning to send Herri to Meulaboh again to see what the priority is. Looking in the press it seems that progress on rebuilding Aceh is extremely slow so there should be no shortage of things to spend this money on. We'll update as soon as we have more info.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

22 April 2005

Apologies for the lack of update over the last three weeks, I've been very busy with work.

We've had a few more contributions over the last week or two and now raised a total of ₤10,894 (USD 20,436 or 186 million Rupiah). See donations for details. We've spent a total of 172 million Rupiah which means we have approximately 14 million Rupiah remaining.

Everyone working in Aceh got back to Jakarta the first week of April, with the exception of Dian. She decided to stay in Medan to meet up with Herri (there's a bit of a romance going on there!). However Herri had gone to Nias after the earthquake there on 28 March and hadn't returned. After waiting for him for a few days she decided to come back to Jakarta on 5 April. That was a good decision as Herri only got back from Nias to Medan yesterday.

Dian brought some photos of the toilets taken during the second week, just before the earthquake on 28 March. See after 2 weeks. The good news is that there was no major damage from the earthquake. There was a smaller earthquake a few days before the big one which toppled the water tank as it had not been properly cemented in place. The watertank is no longer usable but this is not expensive to replace. We still need to figure out how to get a new watertank there however.

With Herri in Nias we haven't had much news from Meulaboh. The road from Medan to Meulaboh was badly damaged by the earthquake on 28 March and we're not sure if it's open again. Novi did however speak yesterday to Jumi who works for the PMI in Meulaboh. Jumi said that the fifty tents are now occupied and our toilets are already being used. The toilets still need a few finishing touches though so we will transfer some money to Jumi to pay the local builders to finish off. He said that they were having problems getting water out of the well. This doesn't surprise me as the well is only 5 metres deep. Normally you have to go at least 30 metres to get a constant supply. We need to work out how we can fix this.

Our toilets are not enough to serve all 50 families so someone has built an additional 15 temporary toilets units.

We asked Jumi to take some photos and send them to us. We will not have time to go back to Meulaboh until June at least so hopefully the road will be open again by then. We want to go back any fix the water problem and also build some more permanent toilets to replace the temporary ones. To do this we need to raise some more funds, at least ₤1500 (3000 USD) or so, so please help us if you can.

My Mum and Dad, Ursula and Peter, had planned to run a golf tournament today to raise funds. They decided to postpone it as the Irish weather has not been so good (mind you it never is!) and they though it's still a bit early in the year for a Friday night competition. The tournament is now scheduled for 8 July and with more playing time in the evenings and hopefully better weather they should get a good turnout. They have already managed to get some good prizes from a number of sponsors, including a digital camera and memory card, a motorised golf cart, some Tyrone crystal and golf accessories. They coming to Indonesia on holiday next week so we can get them some more Indonesian prizes when they're here.

That's all for now. I'll post another update when I get some photos from Jumi. Also I plan to build the photo gallery soon as we have a lot of photos to upload. As I said we're asking for some more funding to go back to Meulaboh in June so please help us if you can by making more contributions.

I've now set up a paypal account so you can make credit card donations by clicking on the button below:

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

30 March 2005

When the news broke about the earthquake just before midnight local time on Monday, we were very concerned for the people working on the toilets and Novi's friend Dian and her cousin Maman. The GSM networks were totally jammed so we couldn't get through to their mobiles. About an hour later we got a disturbing text message from Maman asking for help. Shortly after we managed to get through to Dian. She told us that the whole of Meulaboh were running for their lives thinking that a tsunami was on the way and that Maman had been hit by a car in the confusion. She said that he was ok physically though and only seemed to be a bit shaken by it. Throughout they night they keep calling again in panic as there was a whole series of aftershocks and with each one rumours circulating that the sea had gone out so there was a tsunami on the way. You can really see how many aftershocks there have been by looking at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html. If was terrifying for us taking their calls so I can't imagine what it was like for them.

We tried to call Herri yesterday to see if we can offer any help to the PMI for the emergency on Nias island following Monday's earthquake but he'd already left for Nias. It seems there's plenty of aid on the way there but the bottleneck is getting it in as the airport is not in good shape and there's been a lot of rain.

Novi decided that everyone was coming back as soon as possible and she flew to Medan yesterday to meet them and bring them back with her. The only problem now is that they are leaving the toilets almost, but not quite complete. However we decided that we could get them finished with the help of Pak Rudiyalsjah who lives across the road and Pak Dadek the camat. We can transfer money to Pak Rudiyalsjah to pay the local builders to finish the job and we'll ask Pak Dakek to drop by and have a look. Also we can ask Herri to go there for a weekend to take some photos once the toilets are complete.

Herri went to Meulaboh the weekend before last to see the progress after one week. He took some photos for us. Have a look at after 1 week for the photos. It a relief to see that the toilets are looking like the design.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

20 March 2005

Summary of finances:

We've now raised a total of ₤10,619 (USD 19,920 or 182 million Rupiah). See donations for details. We've spent a total of 160 million Rupiah which means we have approximatedly 22 million Rupiah remaining. I've received almost all donations with a few exceptions.

Summary of activites:

We set off from Jakarta on 10 March and arrived in Meulaboh two days later. We spent 12 hours in Meulaboh and managed to arrange everything for our builders to start work. See starting to build for details. Unfortunately we did get to see them start work. We left four people from Jakarta behind: a builder, a well-driller, Novi's cousin Manam to help out, and Novi's friend Dian to keep an eye on everything and help us coordinate things from Jakarta. Additionally we've hired 4 local Acehnese builders to work with our people.

We got back to Jakarta on Sunday.

Our latest report from Dian after one week is that the walls are almost complete and they're starting to put on the roof. We expect the toilets to be complete later this week. The well is already supplying water to the builders. Herri went to Meulaboh this weekend and he goes back to Medan tomorrow. He has his camera with him and he's promised to email us some photos showing the latest progress. Hopefully I can upload these and give the latest report this week.

My Mum and Dad, Ursula and Peter, are organising a ladies and gents open golf tournament at Newtownstewart Golf Club on 22 April to raise some more money for us. Hopefully this should raise enough for at least one more trip to Meulaboh.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

10 March 2005

Our funding seems to have peaked for now at ₤10,409 (USD 19,518 or 178.5 million Rupiah). We've spent a total of 138 million Rupiah which means we have 40 million Rupiah remaining. These figures are based on yahoo! finance exchange rates from January so I might need to revise these figures with the latest rates when I get a chance. All of the figures in the accounts use the actual rates for individual transactions.

Please feel free to make any further donations. We're hoping that we can make at least a fourth trip to Aceh after our third trip which we are making this week.

We decided to start work on our communal toilets this week. See preparation and spend report for details. I designed the toilets and Novi went shopping for the building materials. We sent off two trucks on Monday night. We've just arrived in Medan and we again plan to go by car to Meulaboh either late tonight or early tomorrow depending on when the trucks arrive. We've brought Novi's friend Dian with us. She has agreed to stay in Meulaboh until the toilets are complete to oversee things for us. We'll update next week when we return.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

01 March 2005

A short update:

We've now raised a total of ₤10,380 (USD 19,464 or 178 million Rupiah). We've spent a total of 98 million Rupiah which means we have 80 million Rupiah remaining to spend on our next project.

Backbeat's concert on 20 February was a success and raised ₤800. Well to Backbeat and to Damien, Maria and Anna for organising, and to my uncle Liam, his staff and pupils for the use of the school and turning up to support. I'm waiting for some photos, audio and video recordings that Damien made and I will upload these as soon as possible.

We have made a start on planning our next project which is to build some communal toilets in Meulaboh. I will provide an update on this in the next few days.

Finally I've made a change to the website to make it more interactive and allow you to post your comment on any update/page. Just click on the "Add your comment" button at the bottom of any update or page. Feel free to make any comment, suggestion, criticism or anything else.

Also note that all page extensions have changed from htm to php (I've been doing a bit of scripting!) so be careful if you have bookmarks to the old pages.

Comments on this update:

18 February 2005

We've now raised a total of ₤9530 (USD 17,868 or 163 million Rupiah). We've spent a total of 98 million Rupiah which means we have 65 million Rupiah remaining to spend on our next project.

We travelled to Meulaboh last Thursday returning on Saturday and made it back to Jakarta on Monday morning. You can click on Meulaboh for a report of our trip.

We're looking ahead at our next project already. The main priorities are to build the toilets/showers and make a well in the fish market to give the vendors a water supply.

My brother Damien and his percussion quartet Backbeat expect to do well at their concert on Sunday. I've asked him to make a recording and I'll try to get it uploaded to the website next week.

We'll give another next week with the results of Backbeat's concert and some more details of our plans for our next project.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

09 February 2005

Just when we thought things were starting to dry up we got almost another ₤900 in the last two days. We now have ₤8914 (16711USD or 152.8 million Rupiah) pledged and we should cross the ₤9000 mark shortly. See donations for details.

We've now completed the preparation for our second trip. You can click on preparation for details. Our truck left Jakarta Monday at lunchtime. They're now only a few hours away from Medan. Novi and I are flying to Medan again early tomorrow (Thurdsay) morning to join them. From Medan we'll hire the the same car and driver as last time and we'll have the same PMI volunteers to accompany us to Aceh. We'll drive to Meulaboh Thursday and we expect to return Sunday to Medan. Our flights back to Jakarta are early Monday morning.

My brother Damien and his percussion quartet Backbeat will give a concert in Huddersfield on 20 February to raise some funds for us. My uncle Liam is the principal of All Saints Catholic High School in Huddersfield and he has offered the use of the school for the concert. One piece will feature pupils from the school. The local newspaper, The Huddersfield Examiner, is showing interest and will hopefully run a story to give them some publicity. If anyone wants to attend please contact Damien or his wife Maria for details. To see their flyer, click on fund-raising.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

02 February 2005

Our total amount pledged now stands at ₤8057, that's 15,110 USD or 138 million Rupiah, thanks to a single individual pledging over 2700 USD at the weekend. That's our largest contribution to date. Also thanks to all the others who have contributed. See donations for details.

Our PMI (Indonesian Red Cross) man Herri went to Meulaboh over the weekend. He told us that it is still extemely chaotic there and the aid effort is still very badly coordinated. He asked us if we could provide some things urgently including mosquito nets, tarpaulin for making tents, paraffin stoves and other cooking utensils. The PMI are looking after 6000 people in Meulaboh and they only have one mosquito net between. Malaria are Dengue Fever are two mosquito tranmitted deseases that people are worried about at the the minute.

We've started shopping again for our second trip to Aceh to deliver these items that he has requested. We plan to go there next week as again we have a long weekend with Thursday 10 and Friday 11 February public holidays in Indonesia. Please watch out for a report on our preparation for this trip including details of our shopping. I will try to add this by Friday.

As for our plan to build some communal toilets/showers we're still waiting for advice from Herri. He told us that the local authorities are meeting next week to decide where the permanent camps will be in Meulaboh that will be built into villages over time, so we should wait for the outcome. Additionally he wants us to use our trip to Meulaboh next week to survey the current camps to see for ourselves what the best site is. Again please watch out for a report on our preparation but it's unlikely that I'll add anything to this before we come back from Meulaboh next week.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

28 January 2005

We now have raised more than ₤6000 which means we have crossed the 11,000USD mark, and also passed 103 million Rupiah. See donations for further details.

We have successfully completed our first mission of taking a truckload of aid to Aceh. You can now read the complete report of our trip by clicking on the links on the road and Banda Aceh. We have spent a total of 40 million Rupiah (see spend report for details) so far, meaning that we still have over 60 million Rupiah left to start on our next project.

We've built up an excellent relationship with Herri from the PMI in Medan (that's him in the photo with us) and we're talking to him over the phone almost every day. Medan is the last stop where there is some infrastructure before you get to Aceh so they are supporting all of the stations in Aceh, and they seem quite well organised, so they are definitely the best people to work with.

Following the aid distribution problems the Indonesian Red Cross has asked us to change focus a bit and look at reconstruction. Herri has given us a revised request with a list of required aid items. These include:

• Mosquito nets (people are really concerned about malaria and dengue fever)

• Plastic sheets for bedding and shelter

• Sandals

• Electrical equipment such as generators, cabling, lamps, torches and switches

• Cleaning equipment such as buckets and mops

• Materials to build communal showers and toilets such as bricks, cement, wc, pipes, washbasins

• School materials such as books, pens, pencils, schoolbags and uniforms

Additionally Herri is requesting some things to help the PMI with their operations. These include:

• Communications equipment such as walkie-talkies and CB radios

• Caps and t-shirts with PMI logo

• Wellington boots

• Hammocks

• Torches

We're currently thinking that out next project can include building some communal toilets in the camps where the people who have lost everything are living. Sanitation is a real concern at the minute and that must be a first priority. Herri is currently trying to assess where the best place to do this will be, but he thinks it is most like that Meulaboh will need this first. We're currently waiting on further instructions from him.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

27 January 2005

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

25 January 2005

We reached a milestone over the weekend in that you now have pledged over ₤5000 (9870 USD). The next milestone will be 10,000USD and that shouldn't take too long. There's still a few people with plenty of money that I haven't reached yet, but it's only a matter of time before I find them. Following this we need you to help us get to 100 million Rupiah to impress the Indonesians.

I've received quite a few transfers, thank you, but I'm still missing a few. If you transferring to my Indonesia account ask your bank to waive the transfer charge. A few Australians have told me that their banks agreed to do this.

We travelled to Aceh on Thursday and returned on Sunday. You can click on the links on the road and Banda Aceh on the left to read a report of our trip. The Banda Aceh story is not there but you can check back tomorrow again.

Following our trip to Aceh, we have received a revised request from the PMI (Indonesia Red Cross). I will add this either later tonight or tomorrow after I do the Banda Aceh report.

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.

11 January 2005

People have been asking how to contribute to the aid process for Aceh so here's a chance for everyone to make a direct impact on the aid operation for the approximately 600,000 internally displaced Acehnese people made homeless by the tsunami.

Novi and I are currently planning to organise aid runs from Jakarta to refugee camps in Aceh. We're hoping to get the first run underway by next week. The Indonesian Red Cross has informed us that the place where the people currently need aid the most is in the town of Meulaboh on the west coast of Aceh. The overland roads there have just about become passable again in the last few days although we've been informed by the Red Cross that four wheel drives are the only effective means of transport. The drive from Jakarta is about 3 days so the round trip is about one week.

Basically we plan to hire a four wheel drive or a small truck and fill it up with as much aid items as possible. We already have two drivers to alternate over the long drive. We'll organise as many trips as funds permit. We're arranging to drop off the aid with the Red Cross in the refugee camps.Based on the Indonesian's Red Cross advice, we plan to send the following aid items:

• Tinned food

• Dry food such as biscuits

• Baby milk and food

• Rehydration salts to treat diarrhoea and other basic medicine

• Underwear and toiletries

They've told us that food is not so urgent, however a lot of the food that has been sent has been either perishable or rice and noodles which require cooking, which is not very useful given the limited cooking facilities, so non-perishable pre-cooked food will be needed. The bigger concern is the spread of diseases such as cholera, measles, encephalitis and other complications such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. With so many people crammed into relief camps and a lack of basis sanitation, these are increasingly becoming threats.

Please help us to do this by making donations. We estimate that we can send about 2000USD (₤1000) of aid per trip.

Please let me know if advance if you plan to make a donation so that I can estimate funds.We'll give a report on our activities and complete and transparent audit on the funds that we raise once we're up and running.

As I said above, we're in touch with the Indonesian Red Cross, and we're seeking advice from them in order to ensure that the aid is as effective as possible.Please give generously and please forward to anyone we've missed who may be interested.

Ciaran and Novi

Comments on this update:

No comments have been added yet for this update.