wfn.org | CWS: Post Tsunami Acheh 'Building Back Better'

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7- (781) 925 1526; jdragin@gis.net

NEWS UPDATE

ONE YEAR LATER, PEOPLE GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS IN POST-TSUNAMI ACHEH AND
'BUILDING BACK BETTER,' SAYS CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

BANDA ACEH - Mon Nov 7 - Nearly one year after last December's deadly
tsunami, the people of Indonesia's Aceh province are beginning to rebuild
and recreate lives and livelihoods- with an emphasis on building for a
better future, reports global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

Groups of livestock farmers in Aceh are starting new livestock breeding
businesses or restarting old ones with new stocks of pigs, chickens and
vaccination supplies from Church World Service. But they're also building
on a firmer foundation, through Church World Service programs in which
breeders are now learning more about animal husbandry and key sanitation
procedures- in a region concerned about avian flu.

In Aceh's Sibreh Keumude II sub-district, a furniture business group, back
in business with new machines and tools provided by Church World Service,
is fulfilling its first order of window frames.

In order to increase local incomes, in its current homes reconstruction
program Church World Service's Aceh team is outsourcing the work of
windows and doors to local carpenters, and home construction to the local
people and owners of the new houses.

"It is easy to build houses if you're not considering the local participation. We would just let contractors build. But I worry if we do so, the
continuation and sense of belonging will be different," said Indra, Church
World Service's technical shelter officer stationed in Banda Aceh.

In Aceh, farming has resumed. In Gunung Sitoli, one farming group has
begun cultivation of vegetable crops including spinach, string beans,
other legumes and red peppers. In Mandrehe sub-district another farming
cooperative of 20 people has gotten underway, with support from Church
World Service.

But post-tsunami, sustainable agriculture is key for the future. Church
World Service has held two-day training programs for area farming groups
on vegetable plantation techniques, use of organic fertilizer, and organic
pesticide production.

"The tsunami tragedy has made us start from scratch in many ways," says
Church World Service Indonesia Executive Director Maurice Bloem, "so we're
using the opportunity to help people recreate their lives and livelihoods
in a more productive and environmentally and economically sustainable
way."

The farming program, Bloem says, was conducted in coordination with a
local vocational school of agriculture.  The program also provided
participating farming groups with legumes, red chili and spinach seeds,
and tools such as hoes, grinding stones, buckets, shovels and sprayers.

Bloem says farming cooperatives that took the training quickly prepared
land for planting.

A ten-person group in Gunung Sitoli has started a home gardening cooperative.

With so many fishing boats lost to the tsunami, a return to productive
fishing is fundamental to Aceh's recovery. And that is happening, says
Bloem..

 "We are collaborating with a local non-governmental organization in the
Deyah Raya Syia Kuala sub-district of Banda Aceh, Lingkungan Hidup (Social
Economy and Environment Institution). Together, we're implementing a
one-year livelihood recovery program which will bring 20 fishing boats to
40 fishermen in the district- allowing them to return their trade."

Like others still displaced and living in tents or settlement barracks,
Aceh fishermen who lost homes and boats in the tsunami have been longing
to return and to have their own homes again.

In Pidie district, Ramli, a resident of Lampoh Kawat, is realizing that
dream. After he and his family had lived in a settlement of barracks and
tents for several months, Ramli and his family are now in a new, 360-
square meter house with his family- a result of the shelter and livelihood
recovery program run by Church World Service and its partners, members of
the NGO coalition Action by Churches Together.

The fisherman told Church World Service that, after losing his home and
boat to the tsunami, "I now get fish enough for our daily needs and
installment payments."

The shelter and livelihood program also provided a boat for another
fisherman, Zakaria, so Zakaria could return to work. "If we go to sea for
several hours, we can catch fish," says Zakaria, "and in the afternoon we
can go to the field or conduct other activities for additional income."

"The boat helps my family," he says, "and I have now more choices to earn
money." Zakaria also transports people to market on his motorcycle and
works as a volunteer in the Church World Service program to build his new
house.

"I myself participated in interior design and also construction supervision," he said. "I am satisfied with my house-to-be,"

In its livelihood program, CWS cooperates with PASKA, a local foundation.
Fishermen who receive a boat also participate in a community-based
revolving loan system as a token of social accountability to the community.
"Every time when the earnings of a fisherman is more than Rp 50,000
[US$5], he should contribute 15 percent of the excess earnings to this
community-based revolving fund system, compiled by chosen members of the
community," explained Evy Kaban, livelihood-recovery program coordinator
in Banda Aceh for Church World Service and ACT. "The money collected from
all fishermen will be used as a revolving fund to those who haven't had
earnings yet. They can use the money as seed capital for small enterprises."

Around 170,000 people were killed or are still missing and feared dead in
Aceh province and surrounding areas after a December 2004 earthquake
produced the most devastating tsunami on record. In Indonesia, Aceh
suffered most from the catastrophe.   Nias Island off Sumatra, also
damaged, was hit hard again by another earthquake just three months
later.

Most of Aceh's infrastructure was destroyed by the tsunami, with about
120,000 houses and hundreds of kilometers of roadways ruined.

A sure sign of life returning to normal:  Church World Service is
announcing plans to construct ten village halls in Aceh's Lhoong sub-district.  That is very significant in a culture where life still revolves
around these essential, traditional community hubs. The agency, which has
had a presence in Indonesia since the 1960s, and its local staff of more
than 100 persons, is coordinating the village halls project with village
heads and other local stakeholders and is recruiting local workers for the
construction.

With focus on long-term construction, Church World Service continues to
appeal for donations for post-tsunami recovery in Indonesia.

Editors, if you continue to list donation sources for support of tsunami
survivors, please include Church World Service in your agency listings as
follows:

Church World Service
Tsunami Recovery (Acct. #6970)
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
www.churchworldservice.org
800-297-1516

Contributions may be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, or
online at www.churchworldservice.org.

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