IOM today begins delivering
critically-needed medical supplies and hundreds of tons of rice
from government warehouses in Klaten, Central Java, to remote areas
hard hit by the May 27th earthquake on Java island.

The initiatives are the latest in a series of
health and transportation support services IOM launched following
the dawn earthquake, which killed an estimated 6,400 people and
left tens of thousands homeless in the nation’s agricultural
heartland.

Local officials and international agencies
responding to the emergency are concerned about the lack of
follow-up medical services in remote areas. Numerous clinics in
Klaten district were flattened by the earthquake leaving medicine
in short supply for dedicated local physicians and nurses working
out of tents and tarpaulins.

IOM delivered medical supplies to six clinics
in Cawas and Karang Dowo sub-districts in Klaten on Tuesday, where
an estimated 30,000 people are homeless and plans call for
distributions in coming days to Bantul district in neighbouring
Yogjakarta province where 16 of 26 clinics were destroyed.

At the request of the Indonesian government,
IOM provided dozens of trucks to transport 500 tons of rice to
earthquake affected villages. Eighty-five trucks left a government
warehouse in Klaten this morning and a further 10 trucks are
delivering supplies to Bantul district.

In addition to the rice distribution, IOM has
delivered roughly 550 tons of relief supplies to the area on behalf
of the government, international relief agencies and foreign
donors.

A fleet of IOM vehicles has returned close to
1,200 newly-release patients and their accompanying family members
to their home villages over the past week, and assisted in the
transport of surgical patients from the US Marine and Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) field hospitals to district
recovery centres.

The Organization today also signed a
memorandum of understanding with the Yogjakarta provincial social
affairs office to provide temporary holding centres for people who,
after careful consideration are determined to have no support
network to return to.

“We look at these as shelters of last
resort because people are far better off returning to their
communities,” says Dr. Sue Tredwell, a Massachusetts General
Hospital physician working with IOM. “They will be extremely
useful for those people who are medically unprepared to return home
or who continue to have family members receiving treatment in
hospital.”

Five homes located at a provincial retreat
centre are being readied to receive patients, two hotels in
Yogjakarta city with available rooms have been identified, and a
number of buildings in Klaten are being assessed. IOM will pay for
the housing and provide a small stipend to each patient for up to
two weeks.

For further information, please contact:

Paul Dillon

National Press Officer

Tel +62 812 698 8035

Email: "mailto:pdillon@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">pdillon@iom.int

Shima Roy

Information Officer

Tel +62 811 947143

Email: "mailto:sroy@iom.int" target="_blank" title="">sroy@iom.int