Prime Minister John Howard visit coincides with delivery of learning materials to children in Aceh by Plan on 2 February 2005

Corporate Australia provides seed funding for children.

Rebuilding education in Aceh after the Boxing Day tsunami and earthquake is well underway in the short-term; however, the struggle to get children back into their permanent schools continues.

"While the short-term response of opening of temporary schools means children can continue their education in the camps, the rebuilding of education, the school buildings and restaffing takes many months and needs the continued support of donations from the Australian public and corporate Australia," said Richard Sandison, Plan Australia Director of Child Centred Community Development.

"To get children back into school as soon as possible, Plan Australia is working with the Indonesian Ministry of Education and local partner organisations to provide immediate education opportunities in camps for more than 500 preschool and 2000 primary school children," Mr Sandison said.

Mr Sandison said the first shipment of educational supplies is due to be delivered to the temporary schools in camps in Aceh on Wednesday, 2 February. "Children attending the temporary schools (5 pre-schools and 10 primary schools in 10 camps in Banda Aceh, Aceh Jaya, Aceh Barat, and Aceh Besar) will receive the learning materials and will also be provided the opportunity to have recreational activities and counselling when necessary," he said.

Taking the lead from corporate Australia to rebuild schools in Aceh, a personal donation of $500 000 from Dymocks chairman John Forsyth was presented to Plan recently. Mr Forsyth said he hoped that his contribution would kick-start donations to the rebuilding phase for tsunami survivors, especially children. 

The donation, which aims to build five permanent schools, has also made it possible for work to begin immediately on getting children into interim classrooms, while building starts on the permanent schools. 

Mr Forsyth, who has sponsored children through Plan Australia for more than 23 years, said "244,000 displaced kids are significantly traumatised - going to school will get them back into a routine, give them something to do and allow the teachers to address the trauma." 

As part of the rebuilding education program, 50 Acehenese volunteers are to be trained as pre-school teachers (20) and primary school teachers (30). Plan will support the training of 30 teachers by staff from Malang University.

Mr Sandison said the five-day teacher-training course is due to begin in Banda Aceh on Friday, 4 February at the Muhammadiyah University - one of the buildings that still exists in Banda Aceh. "Plan is also recruiting five Indonesian psychologists and four Acehenese health volunteers."

Following Mr Forsyth's donation, Plan asked Dymocks to use its stores to support an appeal to raise funds to continue rebuilding education in Aceh. To pledge your support for the Plan Dymocks Rebuilding Schools Appeal visit www.plan.org.au or www.dymocks.com.au or phone 1800 038 100.

The Indonesian Ministry of Education (MOE) reported that the tsunami destroyed or damaged 1,617 schools and that 1,245 teachers have been reported dead or missing.

Plan is one of the world's leading international non-government, non-religious organisations for children.  It has worked in Indonesia for more than 36 years and currently sponsors 49,900 children and their communities in Indonesia.

Tim Cansfield-Smith
Media & Communications Manager
Phone: 03 9672 3687
Mobile: 0411 642 194