Endless Sun to aid in Tsunami Recovery around Aceh

Endless Sun, a wooden a 40 metre 700 tonne custom-made shallow draft boat equipped with two Boston Whaler skiffs will depart from Jakarta to take it’s maiden humanitarian voyage on Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 to deliver relief supplies to the worst hit and most inaccessible areas of the tsunami disaster along the Northwest coast of Aceh. Sailing for 7 days Endless Sun will reach areas that other relief agencies have been unable to access due to poor or non-existent ports and roads and to get supplies where airlift drops have been infrequent or impossible.

The most recent body count for the Indonesian area of Aceh has about 125,000 buried bodies with close to 112,000 missing and close to half a million homeless. The Acehnese have had their livelihoods and self-sufficiency taken away. The amount of aid pouring into the area is well beyond the distribution capacity of the Indonesian government, NGO’s and UN agencies to handle alone. The difficulty in coordinating the efforts of the many agencies involved has resulted in delays that have reduced distribution of much needed supplies. The advent of the monsoon season in Aceh looms, posing yet another challenge.

Yayasan Andaru Selaras, (the NGO Shooting Star), YAS, funded by AsiaWorks, a leading experiential training and consulting company, in partnership with Yayasan Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture (IDEP) have outfitted Endless Sun with relief supplies that will rebuild communities and livelihoods instead of creating long-term dependency to aid which refugee camps and orphanages foster.

Dr. Hafiz Pasha, UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Director of UNDP's Asia Pacific Bureau who visited UNDP’s Aceh and Jakarta offices this week said, “It is time to focus on rehabilitation and infrastructure and to let people return to their homes and start making a living.”

Endless Sun and it’s crew will deliver commodities and self-sufficiency items such as brick presses, mechanical carpentry and fishing implements to empower local communities to rebuild themselves. Cargo on Endless Sun will also include personnel from NGOs and aid agencies requiring passage along the Northwest coast and for evacuation of people in need of medical care. Journalists are welcome to board the Endless Sun at any of it’s ports of call and can also fly to locations where the boat will stop to cover the story from the ground. Good logistical communications, radio and satellite communications and on line services are available for filing stories. A documentary film-maker will be on board and footage will be available.

Endless Sun is the vision of Chris Gentry who explains, “When a tragedy of this magnitude occurs everyone has a responsibility to get involved. I couldn’t stay at home knowing how the victims of Tsunami were suffering. At YAS we have both immediate and long-term development plans to help the affected communities rebuild for the future and Endless Sun is a big part of our picture. Our help is just beginning.”

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