IOM has delivered over 1,412 metric tonnes (MT) of food and
non-food relief on behalf of  the government and aid agencies
to Indonesia's remote Mentawai islands, which were hit by a 7.7
magnitude earthquake and tsunami on 25th October 2010.

The disaster, which claimed 509 lives, displaced at least 11,425
people and levelled numerous small coastal villages on the sparsely
populated islands off the coast of West Sumatra.

IOM's ongoing operation to bring aid to the islanders has
involved chartering two cargo ships with a capacity of 150 and 100
MT respectively, three smaller cargo boats each with a capacity of
10 MT, two passenger boats each able to carry 15 passengers, two
traditional long boats, three semi-rigid zodiac dinghys, and one
All Terrain Vehicle (ATV).

It has also chartered 316 trucks to make 488 aid deliveries both
in the islands and in the West Sumatran capital Padang.

"The logistics are extremely challenging because of the poor
quality of the roads on the islands and the high seas between the
islands and the mainland at this time of the year. We use the small
boats to deliver aid to places that we cannot reach by road," says
IOM Indonesia emergency response coordinator Peter Kern.

In addition to delivering aid, IOM medical teams are using the
ships to safely transport earthquake survivors to and from
hospitals on the mainland.

IOM is also working with the provincial health authorities and
the Crisis Center of the University of Indonesia to provide
psychosocial first aid and safe medical evacuation training for
medical staff and community leaders on the islands to better
prepare them for future emergencies.

IOM's tsunami response in the Mentawai islands is funded by the
Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO) and
USAID's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

For more information, please contact:

Jihan Labetubun

Tel: +62 8111907028

E-mail: "mailto:jlabetubun@iom.int">jlabetubun@iom.int

or

Peter Kern

E-mail: "mailto:pkern@iom.int">pkern@iom.int