I came back from Aceh last Saturday after about a week there. I worked as a volunteer with a Malaysian NGO, Global Peace Mission . This NGO is a coalition of 70 NGOs in Malaysia and is non political or religious based.

Background
In the news it was reported about 140 000 Aceh people were killed.Only 70 000 were buried.The rest are still missing or uncollected or still in the tons of debris consisting of wood, metal, zinc roof, plants, cars and boats. Perhaps the number of death may reach up to 200 000 people.

There were camps everywhere. There is no pipe water, communication line, food supply, work, sewage or regular food supply in the northern part of Bandar Acheh. In the southern part where about 1/3 of the population lives life goes on like usual. The southern part is more like Kampung Baru in KL.

Bandar Aceh has about 500 000 people suppported by the fishing, oil and agricultural industries.

Geography
Aceh is situated in north of Sumatera. It faces the Indian sea and the Straights of Malacca. The largest town is Banda Aceh situated north of Aceh. It is acccesible by air, road and sea. The airport is small and only caters domestic flight. Due to the situation now the most flight schedule is delayed.

The domestic flight, Jentayu Air and Garuda Air, make few flights a day from Medan.

Medan is nearer to Kuala Lumpur as compared to Jakarta or Singapore. From KLIA we could go to Medan with Malaysia Airlines or SIA. The Malaysian airforce airport in Subang caters for the United Nation's air transportation.

The road journey from Medan to Banda Aceh is 8 to 12 hours.The road are fairly good. Malaysia's Port Kelang is nearer to Medan and the local port in Aceh.

Medical system
There were 6 hospitals in Bandar Aceh including one tertiary level hospital which is the Rumah Sakit Umum (RSU) Zainal Abidin. Of the six, only Kasdem the military hospital is fully functioning. Kasdem has about 200 beds. The rest of the hospital were damaged with missing hospital staff, patients and doctors. In RSU only 3 out of about 100 doctors reported back to work.The Indonesian Red cresent society had started a field hospital in which I had the 'privilege' to do some operation.

The work in Kasdem hospital are carried out by the volunteers from other Indonesia province and from overseas like Malaysia, Korea , Australia, Mexico and Germany . Other hospitals are badly damaged. However the RSU is structurally sound. It is flooded by 4 feet mud . The equipments, lab, Ot, radiology were damaged.

The official incharge of restoring the hospital was Prof Idrus, President of the Indonesian surgery society, from University Hasanuddin, Makassar. According to him the initial work was to clean the hospitals from the mud. This might tale 2-3 weeks. When I left, I noticed that they started the Emergency unit services.

How can we help
RSU needs equipment, manpower, fund and specialist help.

From my discussion with Prof Husna the deputy to Prof Idrus, we could could help in 'adopting' the orthopedic ward or services.

The Germans had 'adopted' the operating theater. The Singaporean had adopted the ICU. Adoption means cleaning, provided equipment, manning , provide expertise etc .

We could help in another way, to supply equipment ie beds, tractions etc to the orthopedic ward. We could also provide cast, cast cutters, balkan frames,cervical collars, universal immobilisers, dressing sets and other othopaedic related equipment,orthopedic implants.

In terms of man power, we hope to provide a team on rotation basis, every week for the next 2 to 4 months.
Ideally the team consist of 2 Orthopaedic surgeons, 2 registrars and 2 paramedics ( POP or OT staff or ward sister). The team could be identified from the universities, government hospital or the private hospitals.

Funding
We could work with other local NGOs or the international NGOs to tap into existing funds. The international orthopaedic bodies would be a tremendous source of manpower, equipment or fund.

MOA assesment and early decision is eagerly anticipated.

Sincerely,
Dr Hyzan Mohd Yusof