Volunteers jump into action to help Indonesian quake victims

Published: 2006-06-07

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Church people and many others who have jumped into action in response to the earthquake in Indonesia represent enormous generosity, said an Australian priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Indonesia. "The contributions kept pouring in," Father John O'Doherty said June 6 from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in a news update posted on the Oblates' Web site. Six tons of rice were unloaded from trucks by local youths who "quickly rallied to our call," he said. Father O'Doherty said a team of doctors, chemists and nurses from a parish in Jakarta, where the Oblates are working, had sprung into action after news broke about the quake that shook the island of Java, killed more than 5,700 and left more than 500,000 homeless. Just a day after the May 27 quake, the so-called "shock troops" stocked up on supplies and necessary commodities, some of which were priced up to four times the normal rate, and left for Yogyakarta. Upon the shock troops' arrival, he said, they immediately began searching out the victims and had attended to up to 200 patients in one day, Father O'Doherty said.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .