Rebuilding Hope in Aceh

By Kat Burnside

Raising two grandchildren is much easier now that 45-year-old Nuraini has a new, clean house to call home. After the devastating December 2004 tsunami that destroyed her coastal village in Indonesia's Aceh province, Nuraini went to live in a barracks. Life there made her ill and depressed.

Nuraini is a member of the first group of new homeowners in rebuilt Pucok Leung village. Catholic Relief Services recently finished 50 permanent homes here. With the support of Caritas Australia/New Zealand, we are in the process of constructing an additional 50 houses.

"Now, I am home and happy with my grandchildren," says Nuraini, who has been caring for the toddlers since their mother died five days after giving birth.

The children leave Nuraini little time to pursue the work she did before the tsunami — processing and selling coconut oil. But she earns a modest wage through CRS cash-for-work programs, and her husband is a fisherman. It makes her smile that her home shares the same blue color as her husband's boat.

Built of brick and cement, CRS homes meet the high-quality standards of international and Indonesian construction codes and are further reinforced to be earthquake-resistant. In a region prone to near-weekly tremors, it's a necessity. The 2004 tsunami killed 170,000 people in Aceh and left 500,000 survivors homeless.

Rasmaladewi, 35, shares her new home in Pucok Leung with her father and two children. She was widowed before the tsunami and then lost five more relatives during the coastal disaster. Still, she is thankful to rebuild her life on the same plot of land she has always called home.

"I am now living in the same spot as where I have lived before the tsunami; the only difference is the color of the house. I am glad to receive a house from CRS."

In total, the support of Caritas Australia/New Zealand will enable CRS to build safe homes for nearly 300 families, as part of the agency's larger $114-million reconstruction effort that will result in 4,000 permanent houses across Aceh.

Trust in Ownership

Tsunami waves swallowed T. Riswan's home village of Kuala Bubon; he managed to survive with his entire family and even some friends, fleeing the deadly waters on his cargo Vespa.

In the two years since, thanks to CRS cash-for-work programs and temporary housing, Mr. Riswan has rebuilt his wholesale fish business almost to the level it was before the tsunami. Even though he had lost his storeroom in Kuala Babon, Mr. Riswan continued to meet with buyers and traders, first in emergency camps and then in transitional shelters.

Now, as construction continues on the new home in Cot Seumeurang that he will share with his wife, two daughters and son, Mr. Riswan's only thoughts are about the future.

"I do not think about the past anymore. I now work to support my daughter; she is still in school. I do not have to pay to get my house rebuilt. I can save money from my business to pay for my daughter's school fees."

Rebuilding plans in Cot Seumeurang include, in addition to homes, a community-based water system and individual household facilities, a new mosque as the village social and cultural center, and a new access road. The entire village was destroyed by the tsunami, forcing the community to relocate in a new village more than nine miles away from the original village site. Tsunami survivors here have purchased their own land to jump-start reconstruction.

"I am living in serenity as I know my house will be ready in the near future," says Mrs. Lasnawati. She and her husband, a mechanic, saved enough earnings from CRS cash-for-work programs and sewing orders to build a new workshop, replacing the one that disappeared in the tsunami.

With weakened knees at age 46, Mrs. Lasnawati can no longer work the manual sewing machine to make kasap, the traditional Aceh gold embroidery. Her spare time is spent tending the cassava and eggplant she has planted in a makeshift garden.

She says, "I do not care that I'm living in a temporary shelter on a rented land...I know my house is coming."

A New Start

For 27-year-old Hermaliani Meidi, the promise of a new home is bittersweet. The deaths of both her parents in the tsunami make the experience of that tragic day too painful to recount. She married four months after the disaster, and now she and her husband Safril are raising a 9-month-old son in the temporary shelters of Suak Sikee village.

With plans for 176 permanent houses, this is the largest reconstruction effort of three villages supported by Caritas Australia/New Zealand. Suak Sikee was completely wiped out by tsunami waters, save for one mosque. Not a single house survived.

Hermaliani makes do in their temporary shelter, decorating the interior and expanding the living quarters where possible. She generates income breeding chicken and ducks, some 70 in number, and Safril earns money through CRS cash-for-work programs and a small shop he set up in front of their house.

Today Hermaliani stands smiling on the land where construction crews will break ground on her new house. The tragedy that brought her here is still unspeakable. But the hope-filled future of building a new life with her husband and son in a real home she can express: She is happy.

Kat Burnside was CRS' communications officer covering Asia, the Middle East and Europe. She traveled to Indonesia for the two-year commemoration of the 2004 tsunami. Kat was based at CRS headquarters in Baltimore.