Foundation, company help disaster victims

JAKARTA: To help ease the burden of victims of last year’s Merapi eruptions, a non-profit foundation is working in collaboration with a private company in a recent fund raising.

The IBU foundation program, sponsored by children’s clothing company PT Transmaco, licence holder of Hush Puppies, raised Rp 120 million (US$13,230) for people affected by the Merapi eruptions.

IBU is a foundation established in 2005 aimed at providing emergency response and health services.

The foundation’s corporate social responsibility program manager Ricky Soerapoetra said that the fund would be spend to dispatch relief workers and paramedics to areas affected by the Merapi explosions and the tsunami-hit Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra.

“The fund will also be used to pay for the distribution of food supplies as well as water treatment and sanitation facilities for victims,” he said. The foundation has provided assistance for 5,000 families in Mentawai. — JP