Thursday, January 20, 2005

Email Updates From Ahcmad Sofyan, Posko KSKBA

An e-mail came from Ahcmad Sofyan this morning. I've translated the e-mail to the best of my understanding.

Dear friends,

Thanks Johan. Our team left for Meulaboh last night with several volunteers on an aid truck. We were assisted by a local Achenese who was involved in co-ordinating the work among Meulaboh fishermen and farmers.

There are six permanent KSKBA Poskos ("aid stations") organized along the roads at eastern region of Aceh towards Banda Aceh.

Our medical team is headed towards our KSKBA aid station in Muerbeu, Meulaboh, at a village named Langgong. The change of plan was caused by the sudden inaccessibility of the shortcut routes towards the eastern region of Aceh. It was unfortunate that the recent heavy rains flooded Kuala Simpang, as well as the stretch of roads heading towards Langsa and its borders.

There are no changes, however, to our prior transportation arrangements. KSKBA has several trucks ready to travel to any aid station, and is on standby if needed. We have a 190ps fuselage truck, a 100ps colt diesel truck, and a L300 pickup truck.

Some brief updates on our work: our team has settled in Nias Island, as well as Kecamatan Sirombu, Teluk Dalam, since January 13.

That’s all for now, Jo Hann and gang. I hope we’ll be able to keep daily contact since I’ll be on standby at the aid station with the rest of the KSKBA team.
*KSKBA (Koalisi Solidaritas Kemanusiaan Bencana Alam Aceh Sumatra Utara) or the Solidarity Humanitarian Coalition for the Natural Disaster in Aceh, North Sumatra.