Aloha mission cancels Indonesia trip

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Aloha Medical Mission, which sent a tsunami relief team to Indonesia, has canceled its April 3 follow-up visit because Indonesia's government has been turning away foreign nonprofits wanting to enter the war-torn Banda Aceh region.

Instead, said mission executive director Reynold Feldman, the mission hopes to spend the remaining $65,000 in donations on hiring Indonesian doctors to staff hospitals in rural communities devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

"There was hostile fire a mile from the hospital where we were going to work," Feldman said.

The civil unrest arises from a separatist movement in the area. International Medical Corps, one of the nonprofit partners in the area, reported the government has been urging foreigners to leave, he said.

Dr. Lee Evslin, president and chief executive officer of Kaua'i's Wilcox Memorial Hospital, had planned to join the April mission and now is working on arrangements to delegate the work to physicians in the country, Feldman said.

Evslin, now in the Philippines on other business, will head for Jakarta by week's end, he said. He will meet with Indonesian Medical Association doctors and discuss a cooperative venture using mission funds and Indonesian medical professionals.

Aloha Medical Mission is a Honolulu-based charity organization providing free medical care to numerous countries in Southeast Asia. It began a fund-raising campaign to assist with work in Banda Aceh but has suspended that until it can settle how the money should be spent, Feldman said.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.