Information You Can Use: A Bi-monthly Service for the UN and Civil Society
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - February 2005

NGOs Run into Major Logistical Challenge
9 January 2005
Source: New Straits Times (Malaysia)
by: Abdul Razak Ahmad

The tsunami that hit the region on Dec 26 led to an unprecedented outpouring of grief and sympathy. Malaysians have contributed much to help victims, but poor co-ordination among local aid organisations is hampering the relief effort, reports ABDUL RAZAK AHMAD.

A chartered Boeing 737 aeroplane scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Aceh sent the people at Yayasan Salam Malaysia scrambling to get ready.
The non-governmental organisation is hoping to load one tonne of burial cloth, medicine and ready-to-eat meals on the plane.

The NGO's office, a bungalow in Petaling Jaya, was a hive of activity on Tuesday morning. The flight was two days away, and volunteers were busy packing the items into boxes and labelling them.

Yayasan Salam is one of several Malaysian humanitarian relief NGOs and agencies that managed to book cargo space on the plane. They all have much to be proud of.

Outfits like Mercy Malaysia were among the first into Aceh to distribute medical help to tsunami victims there. Yayasan Salam got a team of seven volunteers on the ground in Aceh just days after the waves hit.

The Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim), through its Global Pe! ace Malaysia organisation, is meanwhile channelling aid through three local contacts in Aceh and is planning to expand their assistance to other affected countries. And they are just some of the many local groups helping out.

The NGOs' ability to act quickly is without doubt, but a major impediment they are facing is poor co-ordination in ensuring that the aid gets to the right people.
"What usually happens after disaster strikes is that 10 NGOs will go to the same victims and lavish them with gifts, some of which they don't really need," says Abim president Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman.

"All 10 groups will then disappear, leaving the victims feeling bitter and abandoned."

Some groups, said Ahmad Azam, did not conduct a proper assessment of what victims needed before they came in to help. The victims' needs were also not being communicated clearly to the public.

The problem was highlighted on Monday. The Malaysian Red Crescent Society had to issue an appeal for Malaysians to stop donating clothes and goods, and contribute money instead.

The MRCS warehouse in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, said its international relations and legal affairs officer Jayanthy M. Maruthan, was already full of clothes, which were no longer needed by victims.

"We are now worried that we may end up in a situation where we will have to throw all the clothes away," she reportedly said.
Helping those hit by the tsunami is turning into a major logistical challenge because several countries were affected. The needs of victims in each location differ and change, sometimes on a weekly basis.

Yayasan Salam operations manager Md Ghani Ibrahim said tsunami victims in Kota Kuala Muda, Kedah, currently need school uniforms and baby items such as diapers and milk. Meanwhile, victims in Aceh, Sumatra, are need medicine, water and food.

Helping them begins with the dis! tribution of immediate aid such as food, medicine and providing temporary shelter. Apart from material aid, local NGOs are seeing a need to help the victims overcome their trauma.

"Victims need help to cope with the grief of losing loved ones," said Ahmad Azam.

"Those at local temporary shelters need emotional support, which can be done by activities to fill up their time, or else the memory of the disaster will plague them."

The NGOs are also having a tough time co-ordinating the distribution of aid because so many different groups are involved. Apart from NGOs, associations, political parties and individuals are turning up to hand over aid.

The problem lies in distributing the wide array of donated items, some of which are inappropriate. Examples include instant noodles for people in Aceh who have no water to cook with, and tins of Milo for local victims who are ho! used in relief centres and who have no access to hot water.

Shamsuddin Awang, 51, a tsunami victim from Kota Kuala Muda, Kedah, pointed out the irony. He, along with his wife and three children are among 2,402 individuals placed at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Kota Kuala Muda, the largest temporary shelter in Kedah.

"We see piles of unwanted donated clothes left lying at our centre, but every day we are offered instant noodles for breakfast, and rice, sardines and cabbage for lunch.
"Please, we don't need old clothes. We need food, school uniforms for our children and milk and diapers for our babies."

Shamsuddin, who used to make RM500 a month as a grass-cutter, said piles of donated mattresses arrived, but some of the victims who have seven children did not get any, while others who are not married got several.

"It's a struggle to get access to many of the donated items, even bottled water, which some of us have just given up trying to ask for because it's just too much of a hassle."

Most of the victims in Kota Kuala Muda are coastal fishermen living a hand-to- mouth existence. For many, the tsunami wiped out whatever little they had in terms of belongings. Shamsuddin said many victims were disheartened by the lack of co-ordination.

"I know we should be thankful, but sometimes these people are just not sensitive to our plight. Many of us lost everything, and then we hear about all the aid that is coming.

"We actually see it arriving at our centre, but we find it very difficult to get the items, and we are turned away," said Shamsuddin.

Yayasan Salam's Ghani suggests the establishment of a council of relief NGOs, comprising both government and NGO representatives. The council can centralise certain aspects of the NGOs' disaster relief work and effectively match aid distribution with the victims' needs.

"Youth NGOs are grouped under a National Youth Council, women's NGOs have their own co-ordinating body, but there is none for relief NGOs like us."
Ahmad Azam, however, cautioned against too much centralisation. "The role of the Government should only be as a facilitator to enable the NGOs to operate effectively.

"Too much red tape will kill off the eagerness of the NGOs and our ability to get into disaster areas fast."

Ultimately, the strain of operating in multiple theatres of operation with limited resources is proving to be a major challenge for many local relief NGOs.
"We are all being stretched to the limit," says Ghani.

Local relief NGOs are currently being supported in large part by an outpouring of sympathy and contributions by Malaysian! s. But it will come to little if there is no effective co-ordination among the well-meaning groups providing aid to the victims.

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