September 12, 2007, Jakarta, Indonesia-Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) staff in Indonesia are in touch with partners and communities in the area hit by an earthquake at 7.9-magnitude off the southern of Indonesia's island of Sumatra.
"We have partners and programming in these areas and are positioned to respond. We've reached some of our key partners and are trying to reach other partner staff. In some cases, we can't get through, which is worrisome," said Rich Balmadier, CRS Indonesia country director, from Jakarta.
CRS, which has worked in Indonesiafor 50 years, has an office in Medanin Sumatra in addition to four other areas in the country (Jakarta, Kupang, Yogyakarta, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh); some of the organization's key emergency Jakarta-based staff are scheduled for flights to Medanin the morning. Based on assessments that come in, CRS' emergency team will respond with support to meet the areas of greatest need.
Interviews are available with CRS staff on the ground:
Rich Balmadier, CRS Indonesia Country
Director, at +62.816.18.6701 / rbalmadier@id.seaprocrs.org
Caroline Brennan, CRS Asia Regional Information Officer, +62.81.317.193.740
/ cbrennan@crsindia.org
For U.S.-based interviews, contact Kat Burnside, CRS Senior Communications Officer, at Tel: 202-821-2663 /kburnsid@crs.org
Catholic Relief Services is the international humanitarian organization of the U.S. Catholic Church, and provides support and relief in 100 countries and territories on the basis of need, relgardless of race, creed, ethnicity or nationality.