Press Release from Church World Service
NEW YORK / BANDA ACEH - Nearly six months after December's deadly tsunami struck, assistance to people whose lives were torn asunder in Indonesia's Aceh Province still revolves largely around sanitation and access to water and food, reports humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS).
But concurrently, and in coordination with the Indonesian government, Church World Service's Indonesia staff and other aid agencies are working to assist survivors in re-establishing livelihoods.
CWS Associate Director for International Emergency Response Programs Donna Derr says, "Church World Service has joined with the UN, the affected countries' governments and with other non-governmental organizations to do what special UN envoy for tsunami relief former President Clinton has referred to as "to build back better.'"
Derr cites as an example Church World Service's current assessment of livelihood needs and possible future provision of fishing boats in Aceh Besar region and says CWS is already providing fishing boats to fishermen in Meue Village, Trieng Gadeng Sub district (Pidie). In many villages where boats were lost, fishermen are forced to share fishing boats.
Livelihoods and commerce are recovering in incremental steps. In one village, Church World Service worked with the Indonesian Livestock Department to raise the quantity of the village's delivery of breeding chickens from 400 to 500.
Across the affected region, while aid workers coordinate livelihood meetings and shelter work groups, others continue to deliver goods to the field.
But Derr says, "a major focus continues to be the health and psychosocial needs of children. Supplemental feeding programs are continuing to be an important part of our assistance."
Church World Service, whose largest international program is in Indonesia, began responding immediately after the disaster struck in December. "Language and understanding culture and customs are not a challenge for our indigenous staff," says Derr, "so our teams in Aceh have been able to provide direct help efficiently and sensitively for affected residents."
Derr says the CWS Health and Nutrition Team and the CWS Mobile Clinic are continuing to monitor food deliveries and feeding programs and to work with community health centers who were initially over-run by the needs of a scattered, injured, and traumatized population. Capacity has improved with the delivery of health kits, mosquito nets, mattresses and blankets.
The agency's medical team trains local health centers in how to treat malnutrition, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and cases of worms.
Working through local groups and volunteers, CWS is providing psychosocial support to those still suffering from traumatic stress and therapeutic play activities for affected children.
Revolving-Fund Programs Help Build Businesses and Feed Back into Communities
In some communities, CWS teams are developing a program of community support, in which CWS will provide community-based organizations with revolving funds to support their businesses. In return, the beneficiaries are required to share some of their profits with the rest of the community.
Cash-for-Work Water and Sanitation Projects Provide Temporary Income
CWS teams report that water and sanitation facility installations provide cash-for-work programs now, but while those projects are vital now, they are temporary. "Mainly," says Derr, "people are still looking for work to replace the jobs they once maintained yet may have forever lost."
CWS Indonesia team members work in a rotation that takes them to remote villages, across unrepaired roads. It is an effort that takes time but continues to serve disaster victims, some of whom, the team reports, are still in need of food supplies.
The details of just one week's efforts are a microcosm of the impact of the work, the step-by-step focus, and persistent levels of need:
- Eight villages assessed for livelihood programs.
- Relief kits distributed to 377 people in one location and to nearly 1,500 in another.
- Water and sanitation projects reviewed in two locations in Banda Aceh, 25
- locations in Meulaboh; assessments made in six others; future interventions scheduled in two locations in Nias.
- In Meubolah, supplementary feeding for 70 mothers and 98 children in one camp.
Waiting to rebuild their lives, the displaced population also waits to rebuild its homes. Residents in Gunung Sitoli, the capital of Nias, have been asked by the Indonesian government not to construct permanent structures pending a redesign of the city. The government has said that any new structures will be taken down. The Nias District Reconstruction Agency will focus first on the needs of education, transportation, and health sectors.
Recently in Medan, donor countries met for a summit on the Nias reconstruction. UN agencies, several embassies, foreign consulates, foreign and local non-governmental agencies, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and others met to allocate funds and to coordinate which agencies would do what. Now, agencies are looking to partner with other agencies whose proposals match their own, so that rehabilitation can get underway.
Thus far, Church World Service has received cash and in-kind contributions totalling more than $16.5 million for tsunami response efforts across the region. Some $12 million - amost three-fourths of the contributions received - has been utilized in providing aid or transferred to the field for on-going relief and recovery efforts.
Church World Service is seeking additional support for its tsunami recovery efforts. "We are focusing at this point on mid- and long-term recovery needs," says Donna Derr, "and we know this is going to take time, across all of the affected areas."
Contributions may be sent to: Church World Service, Attn: Tsunami Recovery, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. Contributions may also be made online or by phone at 800-297-1516.
