Tsunami Disaster Update: IUF To Support Indonesian Affiliates' Volunteer Relief Team

Posted to the IUF website 05-Jan-2005

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A number of volunteer activists from IUF affiliates in Indonesia will take time off work to leave for Aceh to work in support of plantation worker communities devastated by the recent tsunami. The IUF secretariat is supporting the dispatch of initially one team of seven volunteers to be followed by a second team of a further seven volunteers.

Each team will consist of union members/officers from the FSPM (hotel workers federation), the Sugar Workers Federation and the Nestle Workers�s Federation

Each team is made up of members with relevant skills (hotel technicians/engineers; sugar plantation hospital nurses; food safety & hygiene specialists). All three affiliates will raise money from their own members to purchase medicine & potable water, tools and equipment, tents and sleeping bags and first aid and medical kits for team members (this allows all members of IUF affiliates in Indonesia an opportunity to contribute through their unions). IUF support is needed for their airfares, local transport, upkeep and communications costs.

The first team will go initially to help provide medical assistance; distribute food & medicine etc directly linked to and coordinated with relief work of existing local groups that the IUF Indonesian office has contact and relationships with.

The second team will focus on reconstruction activity amongst workers particularly in the agricultural sector.