A Brief History of the Convoy
Please visit my personal blog to read an account with photos of the quake and the first days of its aftermath. You may need to skim down a bit, as it IS a blog and the quake occurred a week ago.
A good place to start talking about this grassroots guerilla-style charity convoy might be from the following two articles I found on Thursday. These are the inevitable stories about aid not arriving soon enough from the big guns, despite Yuli's optimistic report yesterday that she had seen a lot more foreign charities out and about than in previous days, when she saw none.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/01/news/indo.php
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060601/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake_142
I know from daily interaction with many of the agencies that they are still in the process of locating and setting up offices and translators, stumbling over their own bureaucracies (translators I supplied to USAID Wednesday morning to work with US military doctors had tyo wait two days to start working for lack of proper contracts, this when patients are dying at a rate of 400/day -- see the articles above). Eventually, these agencies will realize that their four-wheel drive vehicles can't reach the places most in need (one of which was written about in the articles above).
That's where Yuli's convoy comes in. After a despairing solo exploration on Sunday, the day after the quake, and a follow-up on Monday when Yuli drove a British Embassy representative even further, the convoy formed almost spontaneously on Tuesday, when she and 19 of her family and friends pooled their meager funds and supplies, loaded up ten motorcycles with rice, noodles, water, and powdered baby milk, and headed south. They dropped packages with stranded villagers until they ran out, then returned home determined to do more.
Wednesday morning that gang and more assembled at her grandmother's relatively stable compound (some wall damage and a ruined roof, but some shelter) just over the Jogja borders in the heavily-hit Bantul region. They had each stopped at the destroyed but functioning central market to spend most of what was left of their funds on fresh vegetables. They cooked all morning, wrapping food packages in banana leaves and scraps of paper, and added this fresh food to another collection of boxed food. They found the size of their convoy had doubled, to more than 20 motorcycles. Off they went again, even deeper, and not returning until well after sunset.
Thursday I took Yuli away from her convoy to show a USAID photographer around some of the places she had been visiting. She reported that near the main roads in the disaster area she finally saw some signs of the relief agencies we have been meeting daily in the hotel near my house, but they had yet to get into the many places where villagers have no homes, transport or young members.
Friday the convoy, still at 20 vehicles, returned late in the evening. They had gone even further this time, with 17 donated tents and other materials that had been dropped in Yuli's grandmother's courtyard. They reached a point at the base of some hills where four-wheel vehicles had always been stopped by homeless villagers who had set up camp in the middle of the road. Most of the supplies of such transport had had to be left there.
The convoy learned of neglected villages up the hill, and set off to find them. Not only were they found, but these villagers pointed them still further off to more towns thus far off the big-guns' radars.
Saturday the convoy went to Klaten, not much in the news, but worse-hit by the quake than Jogja. They brought the remainder of their tents, rice, salt, and vegetables to the Cawas sub-district, and returned home.
Sunday, today, the supplies began to decline noticeably, as their own resources and those of their neighbors are nearly exhausted. However, they loaded everything they had into an old pickup, which they escorted with two motorcycles (to conserve gas, but slowing down the journey) to the base of Thursday's hills, and did several motorcycle runs up the hills with the rest of their supplies.
Your donations come in the nick of time. Yuli's convoyers, Yuli, and I are more deeply appreciative of your support than we can express here. Please read on to understand the significance of your gifts. I will try to update this blog every day while the convoy operates.
NEEDS
The aid agencies seem to be a delivering a preponderance of food and water, but very little in the way of hygiene and health. Reduced to bathing in rivers and wells, where there are any, they lack soap, toothbrushes, feminine hygeine supplies, and the like. With everyone sleeping under the stars, under makeshift tarps if they are lucky, a stolen hotel towel was received gratefully as a baby's blanket, her means of survival through another rainy night. Yuli just left my side where we have been composing this narrative because her sister called to say her grandmother's community had dropped off 17 donated tents for distribution by the convoy. Please understand that these donations come from neighbors who are largely vegetable sellers and rice farmers with almost nothing left to give.
COSTS
$3 dollars per day per bike for gas. $2.50 for 5 kilos (apr. 11 lbs) of rice. While the toiletries, tents, sheets and blankets that are dearly needed are relatively more expensive, these supplies are much less expensive than we are used to in the US and Europe. Even a donation of $5 dollars can enable a baby or child to make it through the rainy nights in the weeks to come until formal help reaches him/her. $10 to $50 can keep a whole community clean and ward off the epidemic of disease that threatens to follow in the coming days. Donations of $50 to $100 (more than the average monthly salary here) will enable the convoy to find and deliver longer-term shelter to areas inaccessable to the trucks used by the relief agencies.
The Convoy
Java, and in particular the Jogjakarta region, is blessed with a tremendous sense of family and community. On the one hand, it was this togetherness that spread the Tsunami-panic on Saturday, but on the other hand, it means the convoy's size and reach is virtually limitless. It's ability to explore the area, locate and assist remote areas, and keep lists of needs accurate and current, is probably unmatched by the large, established, and entrenched relief agencies, with which, nonetheless, I am in a good position to coordinate as needed. These agencies (Red Cross, Save the Children, WFP, USAID, UN, UNICEF, World Bank, Relief International, etc.), wonderful though they are, must confirm and reconfirm disaster reports from agents and agencies, here, in Jakarta, and in the US and Europe with their own agendas, pre-approve grants and funding, write contracts before working, and coordinate from Geneva, Switzerland. Yuli's Convoy will be able to act immediately with your donations, supplying what is needed wherever it is needed, without getting in the way of the efforts of these much larger agencies. Donors will be allowing local victims to help their people survive this traumatic disaster until longer-term aid reaches them.
A good place to start talking about this grassroots guerilla-style charity convoy might be from the following two articles I found on Thursday. These are the inevitable stories about aid not arriving soon enough from the big guns, despite Yuli's optimistic report yesterday that she had seen a lot more foreign charities out and about than in previous days, when she saw none.
http://www.iht.com/articles
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap
I know from daily interaction with many of the agencies that they are still in the process of locating and setting up offices and translators, stumbling over their own bureaucracies (translators I supplied to USAID Wednesday morning to work with US military doctors had tyo wait two days to start working for lack of proper contracts, this when patients are dying at a rate of 400/day -- see the articles above). Eventually, these agencies will realize that their four-wheel drive vehicles can't reach the places most in need (one of which was written about in the articles above).
That's where Yuli's convoy comes in. After a despairing solo exploration on Sunday, the day after the quake, and a follow-up on Monday when Yuli drove a British Embassy representative even further, the convoy formed almost spontaneously on Tuesday, when she and 19 of her family and friends pooled their meager funds and supplies, loaded up ten motorcycles with rice, noodles, water, and powdered baby milk, and headed south. They dropped packages with stranded villagers until they ran out, then returned home determined to do more.
Wednesday morning that gang and more assembled at her grandmother's relatively stable compound (some wall damage and a ruined roof, but some shelter) just over the Jogja borders in the heavily-hit Bantul region. They had each stopped at the destroyed but functioning central market to spend most of what was left of their funds on fresh vegetables. They cooked all morning, wrapping food packages in banana leaves and scraps of paper, and added this fresh food to another collection of boxed food. They found the size of their convoy had doubled, to more than 20 motorcycles. Off they went again, even deeper, and not returning until well after sunset.
Thursday I took Yuli away from her convoy to show a USAID photographer around some of the places she had been visiting. She reported that near the main roads in the disaster area she finally saw some signs of the relief agencies we have been meeting daily in the hotel near my house, but they had yet to get into the many places where villagers have no homes, transport or young members.
Friday the convoy, still at 20 vehicles, returned late in the evening. They had gone even further this time, with 17 donated tents and other materials that had been dropped in Yuli's grandmother's courtyard. They reached a point at the base of some hills where four-wheel vehicles had always been stopped by homeless villagers who had set up camp in the middle of the road. Most of the supplies of such transport had had to be left there.
The convoy learned of neglected villages up the hill, and set off to find them. Not only were they found, but these villagers pointed them still further off to more towns thus far off the big-guns' radars.
Saturday the convoy went to Klaten, not much in the news, but worse-hit by the quake than Jogja. They brought the remainder of their tents, rice, salt, and vegetables to the Cawas sub-district, and returned home.
Sunday, today, the supplies began to decline noticeably, as their own resources and those of their neighbors are nearly exhausted. However, they loaded everything they had into an old pickup, which they escorted with two motorcycles (to conserve gas, but slowing down the journey) to the base of Thursday's hills, and did several motorcycle runs up the hills with the rest of their supplies.
Your donations come in the nick of time. Yuli's convoyers, Yuli, and I are more deeply appreciative of your support than we can express here. Please read on to understand the significance of your gifts. I will try to update this blog every day while the convoy operates.
NEEDS
The aid agencies seem to be a delivering a preponderance of food and water, but very little in the way of hygiene and health. Reduced to bathing in rivers and wells, where there are any, they lack soap, toothbrushes, feminine hygeine supplies, and the like. With everyone sleeping under the stars, under makeshift tarps if they are lucky, a stolen hotel towel was received gratefully as a baby's blanket, her means of survival through another rainy night. Yuli just left my side where we have been composing this narrative because her sister called to say her grandmother's community had dropped off 17 donated tents for distribution by the convoy. Please understand that these donations come from neighbors who are largely vegetable sellers and rice farmers with almost nothing left to give.
COSTS
$3 dollars per day per bike for gas. $2.50 for 5 kilos (apr. 11 lbs) of rice. While the toiletries, tents, sheets and blankets that are dearly needed are relatively more expensive, these supplies are much less expensive than we are used to in the US and Europe. Even a donation of $5 dollars can enable a baby or child to make it through the rainy nights in the weeks to come until formal help reaches him/her. $10 to $50 can keep a whole community clean and ward off the epidemic of disease that threatens to follow in the coming days. Donations of $50 to $100 (more than the average monthly salary here) will enable the convoy to find and deliver longer-term shelter to areas inaccessable to the trucks used by the relief agencies.
The Convoy
Java, and in particular the Jogjakarta region, is blessed with a tremendous sense of family and community. On the one hand, it was this togetherness that spread the Tsunami-panic on Saturday, but on the other hand, it means the convoy's size and reach is virtually limitless. It's ability to explore the area, locate and assist remote areas, and keep lists of needs accurate and current, is probably unmatched by the large, established, and entrenched relief agencies, with which, nonetheless, I am in a good position to coordinate as needed. These agencies (Red Cross, Save the Children, WFP, USAID, UN, UNICEF, World Bank, Relief International, etc.), wonderful though they are, must confirm and reconfirm disaster reports from agents and agencies, here, in Jakarta, and in the US and Europe with their own agendas, pre-approve grants and funding, write contracts before working, and coordinate from Geneva, Switzerland. Yuli's Convoy will be able to act immediately with your donations, supplying what is needed wherever it is needed, without getting in the way of the efforts of these much larger agencies. Donors will be allowing local victims to help their people survive this traumatic disaster until longer-term aid reaches them.
posted by Unknown at 6:19 PM
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