SINGAPORE – As floods struck homes in his home town in Aceh in late November, displacing his neighbours and destroying their properties, Mr Hafiz Akbar, an Acehnese student in Singapore, found himself coordinating relief efforts from his dorm room in the National University of Singapore.

The 25-year-old, a master’s student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), heads the Forum Mahasiswa Aceh di Dunia (FORMAD), a federation of 25 Acehnese student organisations around the world.

Since the  deadly floods struck on Nov 25,  Mr Hafiz has been juggling school, his part-time teaching assistant duties and coordinating with FORMAD groups, including those in the Middle East, China and Malaysia.

“Coordinating takes a lot of time, sometimes even into the early hours, because our members are spread across time zones,” he told The Straits Times on Dec 9.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/acehnese-student-in-singapore-leads-global-relief-push-as-deadly-floods-hit-province

FORMAD’s 2,500-strong network has become a channel for information, logistics support and advocacy as the humanitarian situation deepens. The group began raising funds and distributing basic supplies within hours of the floods by working with local partners.

While the group has collected a modest 10 million rupiah (S$776) so far, Mr Hafiz said the funds were deployed immediately to buy food, bottled water and medicine.

These supplies reached families in the worst-hit districts days before official assistance could get through washed-out roads.

Haris Baharudin