Terre des Hommes is intervening in Padang area hit by a strong quake yesterday afternoon, providing emergency relief to the victims. Our local staff is closely collaborating with the local health authorities in the construction of a field hospital next to the damaged main one, and providing also drugs and first aid medical care to the injured. Other aid workers are busy collecting corpses of the victim and searching for those trapped under the rubble.
"Padang is under heavy rains and there are thousands of people who have left their houses and do not know where to shelter", Aron Cristellotti, Terre des Hommes representative in Indonesia, reports. "Many children are beginning to suffer from respiratory diseases, however given the high number of injured the local health staff cannot assist them. Our operators will give priority to the children as per our mission statement, to both the injured ones and those indirectly affected by the quake. In the meantime we will assess which are the most urgent interventions and then we will list a post-emergency aid plan."
Terre des Hommes is present in Indonesia since the Tsunami emergency of 2004 and since then has brought forward several reconstruction and livelihood programmes in the Banda Aceh, Pidie and Medan areas, in the northern province of Sumatra. Furthermore, Terre des Hommes has also intervened in emergency relief interventions during the devastating Giava earthquake at the end of May 2006.
Terre des Hommes has opened an emergency fund for Sumatra: Credit transfer on Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy - IBAN IT53Z0103001650000001030344, or Postal paying-in slip nr. 321208 (for additional information www.terredeshommes.it)
Terre des Hommes (TDH) Italia onlus is an International NGO working on direct support to the rights of children in developing countries, without racial, religious, political, cultural or gender-based discriminations. Created in 1989 and becoming foundation in 1994, TDH Italy today operates in 22 countries among 3 continents with more than 90 development, humanitarian and emergency relief projects in different sectors: mother and child health, basic education, capacity building, human rights, child protection and rehabilitation, income generating activities and enhancement of local resources. TDH Italy is part of Terre des Hommes International Federation (TDHIF), works in partnership with ECHO and has been accredited by the European Union and the UN. For further information please consult the following link: www.terredeshommes.it
For specific information on the Sumatra relief operations please contact Bruno Neri, emergency response programme officer TDH Italy: + 39 348 0973886
Rossella Panuzzo
Terre des hommes Italia Press office
mail: ufficiostampa@tdhitaly.org
tel. + 39-02 28.97.04.18
fax. + 39-02 26.11.39.71
www.terredeshommes.it
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A medical team carries the body of an earthquake victim to a hospital in Padang, West Sumatra province October 1, 2009. Rescue teams struggled on Thursday to reach scores of people ...
