Dear Julia,

The situation in Aceh is very sad though the assistance come from all over the world as well as from Indonesia. The devastation of the damage is unbelievable. The area has almost completely beed destroyed by the Tsunami. Coordination on the ground is key. We try to do the best as we can.

Our Fellows from Aceh, Burhanuddin (cohort 6) and Jamal Gawi (cohort 4),both are Acehnese, are doing fine. Burhanuddin and his family were almost trapped in their house by water. Fortunately, the house has a second floor. It was only a matter of seconds as the family went upstairs that the Tsunami hitheir house. Actually, the family went outside after the earthquake and when they realized the water was on the other side, they ran to the second floor. One of Burhanuddin children could not make it but was found 5 days later, safe! So they are all lucky. Burhanuddin came to the office yesterday and explained the situation in Aceh to us. He brought all the family members to Jakarta but he will be based in Aceh to help others.

Burhanuddin becomes our ally in Aceh to support us with more accurate data from the ground, especially from West Aceh, one of the most destroyed areas. Jamal Gawi and family live in Jakarta so his family is fine but he has family in Aceh who suffered from the tragedy.

I would like to share with you how we work in this emergency situation with Fellows. They are so helpful and we feel fortunate to have the network.

In this situation LEAD Fellows help each other. Muhtadi Sjadzali has a design of mobile water treatment unit for Aceh refugee. Water is desperately needed in the refugee camps. We both work closely to propose this idea to potential donor agencies and companies. Through the funds we can deliver a mobile water treatment unit that can serve 3000 persons per day for 30 liter of clean water (minimum standard for healthy life) that works 22 hours per day. (Note from Julia: if anyone would like to see this proposal, please be in touch with me and I will send it: I am trying to look for potential donors for this).

Jamal Gawi (cohort 4) gave access to Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) since he is a consultant for CFLI. We have submitted a proposal to CFLI.

Muhtadi contacted his colleagues in UK, Ayleen Wisudha, who would like to collect funds from Lions Club to be donated for the Aceh refugee. Ayleen needs your letter of reference of LEAD International and LEAD Indonesia, to ensure that LIONS Club donates the funds to the right agency.

Didi and I met Maria Hartiningsih (cohort 1) to get access to Kompas, a leading newspaper in Indonesia to appeal for funds to build the water unit. Kompas has been raising funds from the public. Actually we spent the last day of December 2004 till 9.30 PM at the Kompas office to promote the idea.

Abdi Suryaningati's organization (cohort 1) is leading in providing the latest data on Aceh so we can use the recent data to monitor the situation in Aceh. We will use her data base to deliver the water unit to Aceh, also with the assistance from Burhanuddin in Aceh. Abdi has coordinated the efforts of NGOs in Indonesia by developing a coalition for Aceh.

Misri Gozran (cohort 7) also gave us recent data from Aceh since he was assigned by the government to visit Aceh. He, then brought inputs to Didi for his water unit design and informed that water is scare and people are desperatly looking for clean water.

In the meantime, Surur Wahyudi (cohort 6) is visiting Aceh and definitely we can have more data from him to ensure that when the water unit is ready, it can be delivered to the right place..

You are free to disseminate the proposal attached to potential donors. Your assistance is highly appreciated. Should you have any questions please let me know. You can always contact Muhtadi (Didi) for furhter info on the water unit at didi@envitech.co.id

Please keep in touch,

Darwina Widjajanti

LEAD Indonesia