Donation from the Chinese Orthopaedic Association

In response to the appeal by the Indonesian Orthopaedic Association (IOA), the Malaysian Orthopaedic Association (MOA) contacted international orthopaedic organizations to provide material support for the victims of Tsunami in Banda Aceh. We organize the transportation of these items to Banda Aceh via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Tentera Udara DiRaja Malaysia (TUDM) while the IOA organizes the distribution to places that needed the materials.

The following responded to the MOA's call for assistance
1) Philippine Orthopaedic Association
2) Chiba Children's Hospital, Japan
3) Chinese Orthopaedic Association
4) Individuals and organizations in this country

On 29th March 2005, a handing over ceremony of medical relief items from the Chinese Orthopaedic Association (Dr Ding Lixiang representing the President, Prof Qiu Guixing) to the IOA (represented by the president Dr Bambang Tiksnadi) was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Putrajaya. Present at the occasion was YB Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Saw Aik, President of MOA, and Exco Members, and Encik Nur Anwar Hashim, Vice President of Global Peace Mission. The donated items consisted of many kinds of orthopaedic instruments, implants and medications supplied by reputable orthopaedic companies totaling 1490 kg in 155 boxes, with the estimated cost of RM 1.2 million. These items will be transported to Banda Aceh by TUDM in the next few days. The event was covered by the Utusan Malaysia, the New Straits Times and RTM.

The medical relief trip to Sri Lanka was very successful as reported by Dato' Dr K S Sivananthan. With the delivery of the donations by the COA, we have no further plans in North Sumatra in the near future since the IOA has established a mechanism to arrange for direct delivery of medical relief items to either Banda Aceh or Jakarta. The last project for the humanitarian committee will probably be the medical field trip to Batam island by two of our members from 1st to 3rd May 2005.

In future, with the continuing support from NGOs like the GPM, MERCY Malaysia, TIMA and others, we hope to be able to organize elective visits by our orthopaedic surgeons to selected hospitals in Banda Aceh, Sri Lanka, Batam Island and possibly other areas to perform scheduled operations that require expertise that may not available in these places. For this purpose, the Humanitarian Service Committee of the MOA hopes to acquire several sets of portable basic orthopaedic instrumentations that can be carried by our members to selected areas where facilities are lacking and bring them back for replenishing

Finally, we can also help to source for sponsorships for some of the orthopaedic surgeons serving in disaster affected areas to have short attachments at medical institutions in Malaysia on specific fields like management of complications of fracture so that they can provide better service to their people.