Jakarta, Indonesia -- Endless Sun, a wooden 40 metre 700 tonne custom made shallow draft boat equipped with two Boston Whaler skiffs, will depart from Jakarta to take it’s maiden humanitarian voyage on Wednesday, March 9th, 2005. The Endless Sun will deliver relief supplies to the worst hit and most inaccessible areas of the tsunami disaster along the Northwest coast of Aceh. Sailing for seven days Endless Sun will reach areas that other relief agencies have been unable to access due to poor or non-existent ports and roads. They can bring in critical supplies where airlift drops have been infrequent or impossible to make.

The most recent body count for the Indonesian area of Aceh has confirmed about 125,000 buried bodies with close to 112,000 people missing. There are close to half a million homeless. The Achenese have had their livelihoods and self-sufficiency taken away from them. The amount of aid pouring into the area is well beyond the distribution capacity of the Indonesian government, NGO’s and UN agencies to handle alone. As a result, delays have reduced distribution of much needed supplies. The advent of the monsoon season in Aceh poses yet another challenge.

Yayasan Andaru Selaras, (the NGO Shooting Star), YAS, funded by AsiaWorks, Asia’s leading experiential training and consulting company, and in partnership with Yayasan Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture (IDEP)have outfitted Endless Sun to help. The boat is able to bring critical relief supplies that will rebuild communities and livelihoods instead of creating long-term dependency to aid which refugee camps and orphanages foster. Dr. Hafiz Pasha, UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Director of UNDP's Asia Pacific Bureau visited UNDP’s Aceh and Jakarta offices this week. She said, “It is time to focus on rehabilitation and infrastructure and to let people return to their homes and start making a living.” YAS, IDEP and Endless Sun and its crew are absolutely commited to this mission and will deliver commodities and self-sufficiency items to distressed areas such as Chalang. They are bringing brick presses, mechanical carpentry and fishing implements to empower local communities to rebuild themselves. Cargo on Endless Sun will also include personnel from NGOs and aid agencies who need passage along the Northwest coast. It will also aid in evacuating people in need of extended medical care.

AsiaWorks and YAS founder, Chris Gentry, were one of the first small groups of volunteers to arrive via boat to face and deal with the horrific tsunami aftermath in Calang, Aceh. The vessel, Sumber Rejeki traveled to Aceh under IDEP and details of this journey including a short video clip can be found at. Endless Sun is the vision of Chris Gentry. He explains, “When a tragedy of this magnitude occurs everyone has a responsibility to get involved. I couldn’t stay at home knowing how the victims of Tsunami were suffering. At YAS we have both immediate and long-term development plans to help the affected communities rebuild for the future and Endless Sun is a big part of our picture. Our help is just beginning.”

Project personnel are divided into two teams---an office coordination team and a mobile delivery team. Procurement of items by IDEP and YAS will be in Surabaya, Jakarta and Medan. Supplies will be delivered by cargo ship or truck convoy to warehousing where it will be picked up by Endless Sun. Once in Aceh, the mobile delivery team will offload either in port or directly onto the beach where there are no ports or harbour accesses. Once off loaded local NGOs and aid agencies will be responsible for delivering commodities to affected communities. The Endless Sun will be in regular communication via radio and satellite phones with the office coordination team, local NGOs and aid agencies to determine its delivery and pick-up routes.

The Project is designed around a 12-week cycle. In each 12-week period we anticipate the mobile delivery team will make five to ten trips along the coast. They expect to deliver 500 tonnes of invaluable life sustainingcommodities each time. After each 12-week cycle, this project’s effectiveness will be measured in tonnes of aid delivered, the number of communities reached and the impact on the local community. YAS and IDEP are both soliciting additional funding to continue a regular schedule of trips.

The YAS and IDEP mandate is “Helping people in Indonesia to help themselves.” Since 27 December 2004, IDEP efforts have raised over US$330,000 in donations for 18 projects they support in Aceh. These projects include on-site midwives, permaculture and many cottage industries. YAS has raised approximately US$100,000 from corporate and individual donations. With its asset the Endless Sun, we are now in a viable position to continue to effectively deliver aid to the region.