The Horror....
Two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, the Padang-based boat the Sumber Reziki is the first to reach Calang; a town mid way between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.
What they find is shocking.
Image - Jason Childs - North of Calang - Aceh
A thriving community of 15,000 has been very nearly erased. More than 6,000 are confirmed dead, over 4,000 are missing, 2,000 are living under tarps and and several thousand are camped in the hills terrified to return to ground zero.
Food is desperately short, people are drinking river water and disease has depleted the megre stock of drugs that have been air-dropped to the 20 or so overworked medics and aid workers in the area. The port infrastructure has vanished.
The navy ships and chopper support are focusing on Meulaboh but the reality is that there are thousands of people in smaller and more remote communities North and South who have not had any assistance since the quake.
Image - Illustration by Jane Liddon - January 2005 - Sumber Reziki at anchor in Nias
The ELM team worked hard to respond.
By mid February we published this update:
Our small boats have been running non-stop in the Banyaks and around Simeulue since the 3rd of January. Working with IDEP, Aus Aid, MSF and other smaller organizations our field reports have provided an accurate basis for the mobilization of aid by established aid relief groups. Existing aid organizations are still coming to grips with the unique topography of the west Sumatran coast and the massive scale of the damage. Being on the ground quickly has been hard on our crews and volunteers but the experience and knowledge base has helped to focus our efforts to mount a response that is more in scale with the unprecedented destruction that is emerging along the NW Aceh coast. In the days after the tsunami we knew that the Aceh coast had been decimated. The reality is now becoming clear and the extent of the damage and loss of life left us stunned at first and then energized us to mobilize a much larger mothership than we first envisaged.
Two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, the Padang-based boat the Sumber Reziki is the first to reach Calang; a town mid way between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.
What they find is shocking.
Image - Jason Childs - North of Calang - Aceh
A thriving community of 15,000 has been very nearly erased. More than 6,000 are confirmed dead, over 4,000 are missing, 2,000 are living under tarps and and several thousand are camped in the hills terrified to return to ground zero.
Food is desperately short, people are drinking river water and disease has depleted the megre stock of drugs that have been air-dropped to the 20 or so overworked medics and aid workers in the area. The port infrastructure has vanished.
The navy ships and chopper support are focusing on Meulaboh but the reality is that there are thousands of people in smaller and more remote communities North and South who have not had any assistance since the quake.
Image - Illustration by Jane Liddon - January 2005 - Sumber Reziki at anchor in Nias
The ELM team worked hard to respond.
By mid February we published this update:
Our small boats have been running non-stop in the Banyaks and around Simeulue since the 3rd of January. Working with IDEP, Aus Aid, MSF and other smaller organizations our field reports have provided an accurate basis for the mobilization of aid by established aid relief groups. Existing aid organizations are still coming to grips with the unique topography of the west Sumatran coast and the massive scale of the damage. Being on the ground quickly has been hard on our crews and volunteers but the experience and knowledge base has helped to focus our efforts to mount a response that is more in scale with the unprecedented destruction that is emerging along the NW Aceh coast. In the days after the tsunami we knew that the Aceh coast had been decimated. The reality is now becoming clear and the extent of the damage and loss of life left us stunned at first and then energized us to mobilize a much larger mothership than we first envisaged.
- We found the KM Batavia anchored off Jakarta's largest port and we have set her up as an 800-ton mother-ship capable of carrying 100+ medics and technicians, 200 tons of aid and equipment and a communications center
- The Ministry for Marine Affairs & Fisheries have dedicated two 28m patrol boats to evacuate the sick or injured out to hospitals in Padang and Sabang and return with fresh supplies and aid workers to replenish the mother-ship.
- The Batavia will be able to support a fleet of charter boats to distribute aid and medical support to communities up to 50 nm away.
- Beach landing boats will take aid ashore and shuttle the sick and injured to the Mother-ship clinic.
- Once other agencies arrive and can establish supply and medical support facilities on the coast, we will target Simeulue, Banyak, Nias islands and further south, focussing on stabilizing traumatized communities, disease control and helping to get basic infrastructure working.
- We are working with NGOs, and small but capable aid organizations and volunteer boat owners. We plan to always have our own capacity to fill in where people are in need and forgotten.
If you would like to volunteer, please fill in the website Volunteer form. If you would like to donate money to this Mission, please click on the Monetary Donations link in the menu above for donation information! THANK YOU
ISLANDAID sustainable support for isolated communities
operated by The Electric Lamb Mission
ISLANDAID sustainable support for isolated communities
operated by The Electric Lamb Mission
On December 26, 2004, the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia was rocked by one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history. The tsunami that followed had a devastating affect on the region. Many small coastal towns were left inaccessible by road. ELM was formed to bring aid to these remote areas. ELM has grown and expanded it's mission to support isolated island communities in Indonesia and the region. We are now called ISLAND AID Organization.