GCH Team Travels to Indonesia

GCH team of four deliver oral vaccinations to Indonesian children

A Giving Children Hope team of four persons led by John Ditty has just completed a mission to provide oral polio vaccinations to children in the Banyak Islands of Indonesia. Fifty children received the vaccinations from the team with supplies left with a paramedic for another 200 children. The team took to the jungle trail, stopping at houses along the way to administer the vaccinations with a distribution of rice done at the same time.

The beauty of the Banyak Islands in Indonesia is matched only by their remoteness. Located off the western coast of Sumatra, the Banyaks were the epicenter for the March 28, 2005 earthquake that devastated the island of Nias. The Banyaks did not sustain the same degree of damage to structures as did Nias, due primarily to the fact that the majority of structures in the Banyaks are made of wood as opposed to the concrete structures on Nias. The problems now being experienced in the Banyaks are the result of the tilting of the islands. Some portions of the islands have risen up out of the water while other portions have sunk. Some villages along the coastline are now under water. Trees along the coast are dying either because their roots no longer reach the water table or because they are inundated with saltwater. Fishing docks and piers in some areas are now standing on dry ground. Where the islands have been pushed up, wells are now dry.

John Ditty, President of Giving Children Hope first visited the Banyaks in January 2005 to assess the damage from the December 26, 2004 Tsunami. As you would expect, many of the residents of these islands are fishermen and lost their boats in the Tsunami. Global has received a grant to build ten fishing boats which will be leased to fishermen at a very affordable rate to help them get back on their feet. The first five boats should be delivered later this month with five more to come in September.

The team also provided short-term emergency relief by delivering rice to some of the more isolated areas of the Banyaks. A member of the team commented about the rice distribution: “There was a lot of laughing and smiling. We left the rice at the first house on the trail and let people know where it was. As we were hiking back out it became a parade. As we would pass a house, the people that lived there would follow us. We had kids running in front of us (barefoot of course) and adults trailing behind us. It was a pretty exciting event.”