Tsunami Relief

I've been wanting to see some footage of the tsunami beyond what the networks have shown. I googled "tsunami video," and came to www.waxy.org, a site which has indexed much of the amateur video floating around the internet. I feel sick and jittery now, having watched about five minutes of different depictions of the relentless tide. It seems so unimaginable, really. And yet, so horrifyingly imaginable, in so many ways.

This all leads me here: Steve (who spent about 8 months living in Indonesia) has some great friends who live in Ubud. These friends, Odeck and Tara, have gathered the Ubud resources to build relief buckets for the survivors in Banda Aceh. As Tara says, each bucket contains:

One Bucket contains

1. Plastic Bucket with lid

2. Instant Noodles, 10 packets

3. Instant Milk, 1 Box

4. Mosquito Coil, 1 Box

5. Toothbrush, 1 pc

6. Toothpaste, 1 pc

7. Soap, 1 bar

8. Washing Detergent, 1 pack

9. Panadol, 2 strips

10. Diarrhea Medicine, 1 packet

11. Vitamins, 1 Bottle

12. Betadine, 1 Bottle

13. Oralit, 1 packet

14. Matches, 1 Packet, 100pcs

15. Plastic plate, bowl, spoon, glass- 1 set

16. Knife, 1pc

18. Bleach, 50gr

19. Rice, 5kg

Amazingly, each bucket costs approximately $10.72 US. They have 1800 buckets to deliver, plus other items (10 generators, 200 tons of rice, 10 pumping systems...), and are having a hard time getting the items to the recipients.

They are trying to raise funding $2,688 US for the cost of the boat now, to trasport the materials to (per Tara):
"An island off aceh called Simeulue, an area that hasn't recieved much assistance."

The wire transfer costs are apparently prohibitive for small donations - let me know if you want to help, and I'll figure out how we can pool our resources. I'm totally amazed by what this Ubud effort is doing - I've been wanting a way to help where I know the money is going to the region immediately, and this direct way of helping 1800 people really appeals to me.

Again, let me know if you can help.

- Kerry