Malteser International provides 100,000 Euro for emergency aid and sends assessment team into Yogyakarta with urgently needed medicines and dressings.

As the quake toll in the highly populated area around Yogyakata rises above 4,600 dead, with many thousands left injured or homeless, Malteser International assessment team members have arrived on the ground. A mobile clinic with urgently needed drugs, dressings and infusions will reach Bantul on Monday. ‘The hospital in Bantul, the town in which two thirds of all deaths occurred, is absolutely overrun. Patients lie everywhere, with new cases arriving every minute. None of the hospitals here can cope any more,’ Volker Stapke, Malteser International project coordinator, describes the situation. ‘We can’t yet calculate how many people are still buried underneath the ruins. The desperate search continues,’ he said.

Malteser International has already provided 100,000 Euro for emergency aid, and will support local hospitals and health care structures with pharmaceuticals and additional medical experts.

The severe aftershocks and the increasing activity of the nearby volcano, Merapi, are also causing great concern to the people in the affected area and to the relief teams.

Malteser International has been working in Indonesia since the 2004 tsunami in rehabilitation projects and primary health care services. Currently, 12 international and more than 200 local staff members are in action in the tsunami affected region.