http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14281_Indonesian_Aid_Workers_Warned&only=yes
===
===
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050111/wl_nm/quake_dc
"Indonesia Warns Tsunami Aid Workers on Safety"
Tue Jan 11, 4:14 PM ET
World - Reuters
By Dan Eaton and Jeff Franks
"BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia told aid workers helping tsunami victims in its worst-hit region Aceh on Tuesday not to venture beyond two large cities on Sumatra island because of possible attack by militants."
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05010044.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
RELIEF ORGANIZATION TAKES STEPS TO COUNTER SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN WAKE OF TSUNAMI
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
FEDERAL WAY, WA (ANS) -- The devastation caused by the tsunami has left thousands of children orphaned or separated from their families and more than 100,000 in refugee camps.
Child advocacy organization Plan International ( http://www.plan-international.org/wherewework/asia/tsunami04/protection/?view=textonly ) has reported that reports of “criminal exploitation” of tsunami victims have emerged recently. Although the stories are unsubstantiated, governments are being urged to act.
As a result, the Indonesian government has banned children under 16 being transferred from Aceh. Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority has directed people to report unaccompanied children to the authorities while the government is compiling a register of orphaned children.
According to Plan International, there are currently no reliable figures of the number of children who survived but are now separated from their family. And child protection experts in general agree, saying it is still too early to know the full extent of the devastation.
However, a World Vision official said the youngest survivors of the disaster will be at greater risk of neglect, disease, and sexual and physical abuse, unless aid workers and local officials take special precautions to protect them.
“Children are among the hardest hit by this catastrophe,” said Joe Mettimano, World Vision's senior policy advisor for child protection, in a press release. “The pictures of dazed and grieving children wandering around the streets underscores the extraordinary vulnerability they face in this disaster.”
In response to reports of children missing from hospitals and emergency shelters, the government of Sri Lanka has issued warnings about the dangers of inadequate procedures in the movement, treatment, and care of children. Child protection experts fear some children are being trafficked for work or for sexual exploitation, World Vision reported in a press release, and are recommending that relief organizations set up “child-friendly” shelters to keep children safe.
World Vision is establishing these centers across the region as part of its relief effort. For example, in Indonesia, World Vision reported it is setting up 20 children’s centers that will include special tents next to temporary shelters where traumatized children can receive psychological support.
The typical temporary shelter has a very large number of children and adults together, making it easy for children to become separated from family members, World Vision reported. If separated, children's specific needs are neglected, placing them at risk of missing out on receiving life-saving aid such as vaccines, clean water and food, and leaving them vulnerable to mistreatment.
“After surviving the greatest tragedy of their lives, these children are incredibly vulnerable,” Mettimano said in the release. “It is the job of relief organizations and child protection experts, like World Vision, to make sure these children are properly cared for and protected from greater suffering.”
Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145.