Portland man to help victims in Indonesia

PORTLAND – A Portland man whose career as a public health consultant has taken him to some of the world’s most tragic disasters will head to Indonesia today to help restore a health care infrastructure.

George Friou is going to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a provincial capital on the northern tip of Sumatra. The region was among the most devastated when an earthquake triggered a tsunami last month.

Friou, 48, will direct a team of nine health officials who will survey regions swamped by the tsunami and recommend both immediate measures and longer-term steps for rebuilding the health care infrastructure.

Of the approximately 152,000 people killed, nearly two-thirds of the victims were Indonesians. The wave left 5 million Indonesians homeless in a matter of hours, and the death toll continues to grow.

Friou has witnessed many public health problems since entering the field more than 20 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer in central Africa. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, he spent four years running refugee camps in Pakistan.