Jakarta, NU Online
A number of Islamic boarding “pesantren” schools in vulnerably regions of disaster will be trained to handle it caused by natural phenomena such as tectonic earthquake, volcanoes, typhoon and so on.

To realize the program, the central board of Nahdlatul Ulama in cooperation with Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAid) signed Thursday (3/8) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in handling disaster based on community activity at the PBNU Building, Jln Kramat Raya 164 Jakarta.

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General Chairman of the PBNU KH Hasyim Muzadi said that NU will always give attention to many kinds of social problem in society by “giving response in handling and tackling disaster.”

“NU has actively participated in tackling tsunami in Aceh and Pangandaran (West Java); earthquake in Jogjakarta and Central Java; floods and landslides in Jember (East Java) and Sinjai (South Sulawesi); forest fire in Kalimantan and Sumatra,” said hasyim in Jakarta, Thursday (3/8).

At the same time the ambassador of Australia Bill Farmer said that Ausdtralian government through its AusAID has given grant amounting to Rp. 4.6  billion to Nahdlatul Ulama as part to finance pesantren on how to manage and overcome the possibilities of disasters.

“We are very pleased to cooperate with Nahdlatul Ulama, the Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization to increase such preparedness in facing disaster,” Farmer said.

Both Hasyim and Farmer hoped signing of the agreement to be in turn a stepping stone toward more firm relation between NU and the government of Australia. (mkf)