Mennonite Central Committee

MCC appeals for 22,000 relief kits for Indonesia

January 14, 2005

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and the Indonesian Mennonite churches are requesting 22,000 relief kits for survivors of the tsunami in Aceh province, Indonesia.

Two Indonesian Mennonites church groups are providing an immediate response by assembling 2,000 kits to send to Aceh where the deadly wave claimed an estimated 100,000 lives and made 500,000 people homeless. Mennonite churches in Europe will also be joining the effort.

"We need to join hands together to relieve the suffering," says Timotius Adhi Dharma, general secretary of Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia, an Indonesian Mennonite synod, which is organizing the Indonesian relief kit drive along with Gereja Injili Tanah Jawa Synod.

An MCC assessment team is making an appeal in partnership with YAKKUM, the Christian Public Health Foundation of Central Java, Indonesia, and the two Indonesian Mennonite churches assembling kits.

YAKKUM, which is providing medical care in 15 camps for people displaced by the tsunami, reported that because of the enormous destruction, survivors may be unable to return to their homes for a year.

MCC Indonesia staff, Jeanne and Dan Jantzi, reported that the relief kits will benefit nearly 88,000 men, women and children in the camps by helping them to maintain good health.

MCC is asking for relief kits to be donated to collection points in the United States and Canada by Feb. 28 and shipped to Indonesia during the next two to three months. Relief kit contents, collection points and further information are listed online at www.mcc.org/asiaearthquake.

MCC is responding to the tsunami's devastation in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India with $12 million Cdn./$10 million U.S. in relief, development and peace work.

In Indonesia, MCC has already provided $90,000 Cdn./$75,000 U.S. for emergency food, relief supplies and medical work, including YAKKUM's emergency medical response, which began within two days of the disaster.