Peduli Aceh Donation

Howdy!
As of Jan 5, 2005,

Date	Name	Amount	Ticket#	Comments
12/29/04	Herlina Moeljadi	$20.00	328801
12/29/04	Felicia Iman	$50.00	328825
12/30/04	Anon	$40.00	328809
12/30/04	Nina Sastrodihardjo	$60.00	328805
12/30/04	LMN	$35.00	328817
12/31/04	Anon	$50.00	328887
12/31/04	IW	$30.00	328813
01/02/05	Anon	$50.00	328913
01/03/05	Hendro Riyadi	$100.00	328815
01/03/05	Anon	$100.00	328799
01/05/05	Anon	$50.00	328851

Total donations $585.

Thank you for the donations, we will be providing updates in near future.

-Ciwi

DEATH TOLL NOW 94,000

Breaking news (CNN.com 1/2/05)

Indonesia’s health ministry raises quake, tsunami death toll to more than 94,000, bringing regional toll to more than 155,000. Hopes of finding the thousands still missing from the tsunami gmillers weakly as aids begin to reach hardest-hit areas.

However CNN reports that the recovery effort in Aceh, after a slow start, is becoming more organized, with more armed forces and aid workers making their way to the capital, Banda Aceh, and then into the province's more remote areas.

Where there were survivors, they swarmed military helicopters -- the only transportation that could reach most of the areas -- bringing packages of food, water and medical supplies.

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Despite all the saddening and discouraging news, it is time to be thankful. Let's be thankful for:
- $2 B aid pledged by many governments
- The international + domestic disaster workers who have started to arrive in many remote areas.
- The solidarity shown by fellow Indonesians worldwide & international communities. More and more countries are getting up to speed in realizing the size of this catastrophe.
- For all the donations made to Permias' fundraising account.

However there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who are still waiting for aid. Please pray for:
- for immediate and efficient delivery of food, water, and medical supplies to those who need it most
- for peace and mutual support among survivors rather than enmity. There have been reports of looting in the disaster areas.
- for each individual who is suffering from the disaster or mourning for the death of a loved one. Pray that he/she may be granted extra wisdom to go through this calamity. For each life that has been saved, pray that this event may change their lives for the better, that it may help them be stronger than before. May they be an inspiration to us all about how to overcome trials & pain.
- for ourselves, that we may be granted wisdom & empathy to understand our brothers' sufferings.

Let's continue our work & remember that each minute that we spend & each dollar that we raise will count.

SATELLITE IMAGES OF ACEH

Image links on the left column show Aceh after tsunami, those on the right columns are for ones taken before tsunami.

http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/tsunami/tsunami.html

INDONESIAN TSUNAMI TOLL REACHES 80,000

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN - 12/30/04) -- The death toll from Sunday's tsunamis has jumped sharply to over 116,000 after Indonesia reported nearly 80,000 people were killed in that country alone.

Emergency workers reported that in some parts of Aceh, as many as one in every four citizens was dead.

Aceh province, nearly inaccessible in the best of times because of its remoteness and the presence for years of an armed insurgency, was even more cut off after Sunday's disaster.

Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the Indonesian military's 30,000-strong force in the province was devastated.

"The military and the police were hard hit. Hundreds were killed," he said. "One military helicopter survived."

Djalal said aid had begun arriving in the devastated province, but CNN's Mike Chinoy said the capital showed little signs of it.

BAN LIFTED, FOREIGN AID WORKERS ARRIVE

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta 12/30/2004

Foreign humanitarian workers have come to the rescue of the people in Aceh, who are desperate for aid following the quake and tidal waves that have killed more than 37,000 in the war-ravaged province.

Dozens of volunteers from various countries, including Malaysia, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore, arrived in Aceh on Wednesday to help Indonesian rescue and health workers distribute food and medicine, provide health care, erect tents for refugees and evacuate rotten bodies scattered around towns across the province.

They also brought body bags and other necessities, and will work in coordination with the Aceh disaster mitigation agency.

Their entry to Aceh was made possible after the government declared Aceh open for foreign humanitarian workers.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that the government had simplified procedures for the volunteers to obtain a visa-on-arrival for a one-month stay at destination airports, especially in Medan and Banda Aceh.

Jakarta extended the state of civil emergency for another six months in November, keeping foreigners from the province, which has seen a military operation to crush separatists since May 2003.

Human rights groups hailed the government's new policy of easing restrictions on foreign relief workers.

More volunteers are still in demand, judging from the extensive impact of the catastrophe.

Zaenal Abidin General Hospital in Banda Aceh alone requires at least 200 more doctors and 600 other medical workers.

RELIEF WORKERS FIND DEVASTATION

Thursday, December 30, 2004 Posted: 1:55 AM EST (0655 GMT)

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- U.N. relief workers have arrived in Indonesia's Aceh province to find devastation in the region closest to the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned Sunday's killer tsunamis.

With 80,000 already reported dead in southern Asia and East Africa -- more than 45,000 in Indonesia alone -- the emergency workers reported that in some parts of Aceh, as many as one in every four citizens was dead.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the total number of dead could easily grow beyond 100,000.

Scenes of destruction -- homes and businesses flattened, buses tossed about like toys, piles of rubble filling the streets -- were repeated across the region, as were the scenes of grief -- residents and vacationers searching in vain for loved ones, or, at times, finding them in makeshift morgues.

Aceh province, nearly inaccessible in the best of times because of its remoteness and the presence for years of an armed insurgency, was all the more so after Sunday's disaster.

The events began just before 7 a.m. (midnight GMT Saturday) when a massive earthquake -- at 9.0, the strongest in the world since 1964 -- struck just 160 kilometers (100 miles) off Aceh's coast.

The tsunami swamped shores, villages, the jungle and Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, which was was almost completely destroyed.

Boats slammed into bridges and bodies were left lying on the streets or still buried beneath rubble left behind when the water subsided, CNN's Mike Chinoy reported.

Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the Indonesian military's 30,000-person force in the province was devastated.

"The military and the police were hard hit. Hundreds were killed," he said. "One military helicopter survived."

Djalal said aid is now arriving in the devastated province, but Chinoy said the capital showed little signs of it.

And the aftershocks continued, dozens of them, four days after the initial event.

Two of those -- both since 7 a.m. (midnight GMT Tuesday) -- topped 6.0 magnitude and were centered in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, part of the same chain as Sumatra.

Disaster Photo Gallery

Pictures taken from news.yahoo.com

http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~ycahyadi/disaster_gallery/

BLOCKED ROADS SLOWS DOWN RESCUE EFFORTS

Relief efforts have started but roads were covered with mud, smashed vehicles and the debris of collapsed buildings and bridges, making travel difficult.

Several navy ships have been dispatched to the coast to contact whole cities and villages as yet unheard from.

In Banda Aceh, where as much as five percent of the 300,000 population is believed dead, residents were stricken with grief and numb with shock.

"I have given up searching for their bodies," said Rohani Amad, 40, wiping her eyes with a black Muslim headscarf, days after two sisters and her 16-year-old daughter disappeared.

The fear of more deadly waves had people on edge.

"The water is coming, the water is coming," shouted terrified survivors as they fled in the latest of a series of false alarms.

But all was not as bleak.

In Banda Aceh, when relief workers removed 183 bodies stored on a mosque floor after the disaster, they found a man still alive whom they suspected had been there the whole time.

"He was sitting there among all the bodies in a corner. He was badly hurt and has been taken to hospital," said the Red Cross's Sy.

The government and foreign donors have begun airlifting food and water into Aceh, some 1,700 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta, but the challenges are daunting.

"The scale of this disaster is incredible. It is unbelievable," Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told Reuters.

"On Sunday the system simply broke down. The local government was simply paralyzed because many of their families, even they themselves, were victims," he said.

The region was already under civilian emergency rule as part of efforts to quell a separatist insurgency that began in 1976. Rebels have announced a cease-fire as people seek loved ones.

Food and other essentials like fuel were in short supply.

"There is no food here whatsoever...I haven't eaten in two days," said Vaiti Usman in Banda Aceh, gesturing angrily at her filthy sarong and saying it was the last of her possessions

In Meulaboh, communications and regular power sources were not functioning. Military headquarters used a generator for electricity.

Sunday's quake triggered a wall of water up to 10 meters (33 ft) high speeding across the Indian Ocean. There have been numerous aftershocks from the quake, including a strong tremor late on Wednesday.

Across Asia, the death toll neared 77,000 with thousands still missing. <12/29/04>

PEAK THREAT STILL AHEAD IN INDONESIA TSUNAMI ZONE

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Hunger and grief stalked Indonesia's devastated Aceh province on Wednesday as officials tried to reach remote areas where tens of thousands were thought to have died from a massive earthquake and tsunami.

In provincial capital Banda Aceh, the stench of death filled the air three days after the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami it triggered swept the region. Food and other essentials were scarce, adding to a sense of helplessness and anger among the living.

At least 100 bloated and blackened bodies were still visible on just one small stretch of Banda Aceh's beachfront, tangled together with piles of debris left by Sunday's raging waters.

Many more corpses are believed to fill remote towns and cities near the quake's epicenter, posing a major health risk as officials warn of the threat of disease to survivors.

Michael Elmquist, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Indonesia, told reporters his educated guess was the death toll in Aceh might reach between 50,000 and 80,000.

"The news I got from a government official on arrival today was that their estimate was that a third of the population (of Meulaboh) had been wiped out, which would equal 40,000 people."

Meulaboh is 150 km (90 miles) from the epicenter of the quake, the most powerful in 40 years.
The latest government death toll estimate for Indonesia was 45,268. Aceh accounted for all but 239 of those.

A Reuters cameraman in Meulaboh on Wednesday estimated 80 percent of the city's infrastructure was destroyed, with most homes and many shops flattened or wrecked.

Only a few people venturing out, looking for missing relatives. Many bodies were still on the streets or under rubble. Soldiers were trying to clear the debris and collect the dead by hand.

The threat of disease grew greater by the hour.

"Many people have illnesses such as respiratory problems, diarrhea, skin irritations and cuts. There are still maybe thousands of bodies out there. We are reaching the peak of the threat," Edward Sy, an Indonesian Red Cross senior field officer, told Reuters in Banda Aceh.

"If the government doesn't immediately take action, worse diseases could spread." In two to three days signs of cholera could emerge, Sy said.

Kepada Masyarakat Indonesia di Madison dan Sekitarnya

Permias Madison (ISO) sedang mengupayakan pengumpulan dana untuk korban bencana gempa & tsunami di Aceh + Sumatra Utara. Dana yang terkumpul akan disalurkan ke rekening khusus korban Tsunami Sumatra milik Palang Merah Indonesia.

Adapun nomor rekeningnya adalah:
Kantor Pusat PMI, BCA Cabang Menara Bidakara Jakarta - No 450.666.000.9

Untuk mempercepat pengumpulan dana dan menghemat biaya transfer, Permias Madison akan mengumpulkan dana sumbangan untuk kemudian dikirim dalam jumlah besar ke Indonesia. Kami memohon partisipasi Anda dalam pengumpulan dana ini. Silakan tujukan cek sumbangan Anda, payable ke ISO, dan hubungi Ciwi Kodrat, 626-290-7660 / ckodrat@mail.com untuk diambil dalam waktu dekat.

Mengingat kritisnya keperluan dana ini, Permias memutuskan untuk menetapkan deadline pengumpulan dana sebagai Rabu Januari 5, 2005.

Indonesian Students Organization Fund Raising for 2004 South East Asia Earthquake + Tsunami

The Indonesian Students Organization in Madison, WI, representing the Indonesian community there, is raising funds to help the relief efforts of the Indonesian Red Cross. As of today, the Indonesian Red Cross has deployed 800 volunteers to the disaster areas. They are distributing food, medicine and other relief items, evacuating the victims, delivering first aid, and are involved in the registration of the evacuees. In addition, they are also collecting data of victims for identification.

Based on their initial assessment, the Indonesian Red Cross currently needs instant food and nutrient supplements for children, tents, clothing items, sanitary kits, medical supplies, and body bags. However, the Madison Red Cross has advised us to send money instead of goods, because transportation of goods is expensive and time-consuming.

We are sending you this letter to ask for your prayer support. Please pray for the families who are mourning the loss of loved ones, for the health and safety of the volunteers and the injured ones, for timely evacuation and treatment, especially for those in remote areas.

We also need your financial support. The funds collected will be sent to the Indonesian Red Cross to expedite their operations and logistics. To avoid international wire transfer fees, we are pooling the funds and sending a lump sum amount to the Indonesian Red Cross account. We would greatly appreciate it if you could write a check, payable to ISO to the address below:

Sonny Suciawan
Vice President, Indonesian Students Organization
4701 Sheboygan Ave #106
Madison, WI 53705

Please also include your contact information, in order for us to provide you with a receipt and update you on the status of the relief efforts.

We are pleading for your immediate response. It is of prime importance that we act as soon as possible to mitigate the possible outbreak of disease among the survivors.