contributions for Aceh

[David Gil]

[apologies for multiple postings]

Dear friends of Indonesia

As you all know, on December 26, the Indian Ocean region was struck by a
natural disaster of horrific proportions. The worst hit area was the
province of Aceh in northern Sumatra, where over 100,000 perished and many
more have been left homeless. We, a group of friends of Indonesia and
Indonesian aid specialists, have organized an informal relief effort to help
alleviate the survivors' suffering. The reason we have decided to act is
that government agencies and large aid organizations have been focusing on
refugee centers, while most of the victims have sought refuge with
relatives, and are therefore not reached by normal channels.

A member of our group, Azwar Hasan, returned from Aceh to Jakarta on January
1, bringing stories of horror but also of hope. Azwar, a community aid
specialist and a native of Aceh, has set up a distribution network of
trusted volunteers in areas affected by the disaster. Based on his and other
Indonesian friends’ advice, we are sending a small team of community workers
to Medan, the largest city in Sumatra, which has not been affected by the
disaster, despite its proximity to Aceh. The team will purchase emergency
supplies based on the latest reports from the affected areas, and will
proceed to Aceh in guarded convoys. This will ensure that the supplies
safely reach the people who need them most.

If you would like to make a contribution, you may send it by PayPal to our
US contact person, Dr. Lera Boroditsky (Stanford University), at the
following email address:

<lera at psych.stanford.edu>

If you would like to contribute by ordinary bank transfer, you may send it
to our Indonesia contact person, Dr. Uri Tadmor (Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology and Atma Jaya University):

BCA (Bank Central Asia)
Plaza Sentral Branch
Jl. Jendral Sudirman Kav. 47
Jakarta 12930, Indonesia
SWIFT: CENAIDJA
Account number: 4411163631
Account name: Uri Tadmor

Another option is mailing a check to Uri's US bank account:

First Hawaiian Bank
Manoa Branch
2764 Woodlawn Dr.
Honolulu, HI 96822-1841
Name: Uri Tadmor
Account number: 44-314886

Updates on our relief efforts will appear periodically on the ISMIL website.

Uri Tadmor [in Aceh]
David Gil [in Jakarta]

--
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

Telephone: 49-341-3550321
Fax: 49-341-3550119
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage:  http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/