March Recovery Highlights

March 31st: Nias Island, Indonesia

The OBI surgical team arrived Thursday to join our two teams already there. The hospital in Gunung Sitoli, the island’s largest city, is partially collapsed. The surgical suite is intact but inoperable. Our team is working with local hospital staff to repair the surgical facility and expect to begin doing emergency surgeries within a few hours.

Our helicopter medical team scouted cut-off areas around Gunung Sitoli, provided services for many injured and transported 20 patients back to the airport for treatment at our clinic there.

OBI medical teams coordinated evacuation of critically injured patients utilizing our chartered aircraft and a plane provided by Samaritan's Purse. The patients were evacuated to a hospital in Medan, a large city in Sumatra unaffected by the tsunami and earthquake.

OBI delivered three truckloads of emergency relief packages to the Port of Sibolga, and has a charted boat ready to make the 80-mile trip across the straits to Nias Island as soon as Indonesian government clears the shipment. Samaritan's Purse has also provided food and relief supplies that will be transported on our charted boat.

We are very worried about the people on the islands north of Nias. So far, there has been no word from Simeulue of other islands closer to the earthquakes epicenter than Nias. OBI is partnering with ELM, an Australian NGO utilizing the good ship BATAVIA to provide relief and medical support for these outlying islands. OBI and ELM are now loading the BATAVIA in Banda Aceh, and hope to sail on Sunday with about 100 tons of food and relief supplies as well as an OBI medical team.

March 30th: Nias Island, Indonesia

While governments send condolences and many NGOs send promises of assessment teams, Operation Blessing has already sent doctors, medicines to earthquake ravaged Nias Island.

The island of Nias, just off the West coast of Sumatra, bore the brunt of Monday’s 8.7 rated earthquake. The island, with population of approximately 500,000, including over 450,000 Christians, is suffering and crying out for help. As I write this, less than 48 hours after Monday’s quake, Operation Blessing Indonesia is already on the ground providing desperately needed emergency medical care for survivors, many of whom have lost limbs and suffered life threatening injuries caused by buildings that crumbled and collapsed.

Wednesday morning the first OB medical team arrived in Nias at the Gunung Sitoli airport in a plane provided by OBI partner Samaritan’s Purse. The team immediately set up at the airport and is serving a multitude of seriously injured patients as night falls. No other medical teams have arrived, and the need is desperate. Reports are that the hospital collapsed in the quake. Within an hour our second team, consisting of surgeons and paramedics will land at the same airport in a plane OBI chartered out of Medan. Arrangements have been made with the local Bupati for our team to set up in the center of town at the government office headquarters. By later tonight OBI will have 18 people on the ground providing medical services. Tomorrow we have a plane chartered to bring in a third OB medical team of nine doctors, paramedics and nurses.

OBI partner Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has dedicated a plane to support OBI efforts. In addition OBI has contracted a charter airplane for the next five days to ferry medical teams, emergency rations and medicine, as well as medical personal provided by other NGOs. Today we have one, and by tomorrow, two helicopters dedicated to our efforts; one helicopter is provided by a CBN Indonesia board member and one by Heli MIssion, a partnering Christian NGO. All flights are coordinated by MAF.

OBI has charted a boat capable of transporting ten tons per trip and is positioning it to shuttle two trips a day between the Sumatra Port of Sibolga and Nias Island. We will ship 10,000 emergency relief food packages at first, then within five days begin transporting 50 tons of rice donated by OBI partner Stop Hunger Now.

- Bill Horan, OBI President

March 29th

OB Indonesia quickly sent search and emergency medical teams to survivors living in earthquake affected areas.

March 24th

Update from Indonesia's Aceh province:

• We are currently running 2 main bases, 5 minor bases and 2 project locations.
• Every day more than 1,000 patients are receiving medical care through our 15 clinics.
• We are distributing 7,500 care packages every week.
• Every day we hire over 700 local people for clean up projects on Aceh's west coast.
• Our team has 50 fogging machines operating every day. We have been in over 2,000 locations.
• We are committed to providing 300 fishing boats of various sizes to fishermen and their families.

March 18th

Our recovery efforts in Indonesia are continuing to help survivors every day! Here is an overview of what has been accomplished so far:

• 60,534 patients have received medical services (including 1,300 minor surgeries)
• 102,304 Emergency Relief Food & Hygiene packages have been distributed
• Over 1,100 tons of food and relief supplies have been delivered to the Aceh Province
• Every day more than 500 men are employed in our Cash-For-Work programs
• 3,250 Cooking Kits have been distributed each containing a kerosene stove
• 50 fogging machines were deployed for mosquito control
• Boat Building and House Building projects have been launched for six communities

March 13th

Relief and recovery efforts began in Sri Lanka on January 3rd:

• We have had several medical teams treat the injured and sick in Sri Lanka including volunteers from Singapore and India.
• Our teams visited all of the tsunami survivor's camps in the Ampara district area. To date we have seen more than 15,000 patients, providing free medical care and eye glasses.
• Four portable fogging machines and 2 microscopes were given to the local government.
• Since the Minister of Health's office in Kalmunai was washed away, we provided furniture, computers and supplies to the newly rented facility.
• We shipped medicines worth 7 million dollars, giving it to the Medical Supply Division in Colombo.
• Due to the Kalmunai's education department's request for school text books, we procured 10,000.
• We have provided a total of ten boats with outboard engines and fishing gear to 20 families (two families to a boat) living in a small community in Kalmunai.
• A camp comprising of 180 families in Akaraipattu have been receiving vegetables and nutritious food daily.

Future plans in Sri Lanka include:

• Providing 100 boats to the most affected people in the Kalmunai area. We want to help rebuild the homes of the same families.
• In cooperation with the Minister of Health in Kalmunai, we will continue providing free medical care in camps as well as gift eye surgeries to patients at the Base Hospital; the service is not currently available.
• Digging 150 bore wells in communities experiencing a water shortage.

March 4th

During December 28 - March 4th, OB Indonesia medical and relief teams have:

• Given 50,858 people general medical care
• Given 1,300 patients minor surgery
• Distributed 52,752 family relief packages and 29,250 personal packages

March 2nd

OB Thailand teams have been helping people rebuild their lives in several villages:

• Lam Kaen District (3 villages): boat building/repair teams have started 2 dozen boats and completed five
• Tap La Mu: 4 boat building teams are working; 4 are finished and 19 are in "approval" stage. Villagers have made 270 squid pots.
• Ban Nai Rai:18 boats have been repaired and 2 new boats have been completed. 270 squid pots completed and have been delivered to 9 villages; 442 fishing nets were purchased
• Ban Koh Nok: plans to build 56 new and repair old boats are underway.

March 1st

Indonesia: Last week our president Bill Horan attended ground-breaking ceremonies in four coastal Aceh communities where Operation Blessing has government approval to build approximately 3,400 homes. We have invited Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, Samaritans Purse and United Way Indonesia as partners in the building projects. Our long-term plans for each of these "adopted" communities include clinics, boat building, revitalization of fishing industry and other livelihood programs. We will also encourage select NGOs to fund projects such as rice paddy renovation and schools in our adopted communities.

We have launched a boat building project in Meulaboh, Indonesia utilizing (5) local boat builders. We have funded construction of a small riverside workshop to shelter boat builders during the oncoming rainy season. the workshop has opened, and work has begun on the first seven boats. We will also provide fishing families with nets, lines and gear lost to the tsunami. We intend to replicate this operation in each of the adopted Aceh communities.

Current efforts in adopted Indonesian communities are still focused on medical, emergency hunger relief and Work-For-Cash. We currently employ over 400 Aceh workers daily. Besides the obvious benefits to communities from clean up, debris removal, boat building and mosquito fogging, the cash we pay workers is helping jump start local economies and providing previously idle and despondent survivors with gainful employment and hope for the future.