3 years on, tsunami victims await help

Asanobu Sato Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia–Three years have passed since the massive earthquake off Sumatra, Indonesia, and the subsequent tsunami. But people in Indonesia’s Aceh Province, the area worst affected by the disaster, are still struggling, living in relief housing for tsunami victims that often lacks electricity or water supply. More than 10,000 people continue to live in emergency shelters.

In Neuheun in northern Aceh Province, houses with eye-catching yellow walls stand on a hill above the port. Chinese characters on the gate to the area read “Indonesia-China Friendship Village,” indicating that the new housing was constructed with aid from China.

Although more than 600 such houses were built for tsunami victims, 20 percent of them remain vacant as they lack electricity or water supply. There is one communal tap, but it is hundreds of meters from many of the houses.

A haulage company charges about 20,000 rupiah (2 dollars) to deliver 500 liters of water from the tap to a house.

“The residents here earn about 10,000 rupiah a day. We can’t afford to pay a company to deliver the water, so I wonder if it would be better to stay in one of the shelters,” said Rusdi, a 40-year-old school clerk. Many other housing developments in the province have similar problems.

In Bakoy, also in northern Aceh, about 600 people from 190 households are living in shelters, with only thin plywood divides for privacy.

“The government told us we could get out of the shelters in two years. But I’ve been here for three years,” said Muhammad Nasir Ibrahim, a 28-year-old former fisherman.

According to the Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, 103,000 of the targeted 120,000 houses have so far been built. People who owned land before the disaster were given priority in the allocation of relief housing. Those who did not own land were left out. A total of 10,000 people from 3,700 households in the province continue to live in the shelters.

Many of the foreign relief organizations have withdrawn from the area, making residents worry that the international community is losing interest in them.

“Financial support for the weak and vulnerable is going to be a more important issue in the days ahead,” a worker at the local relief organization said.

I find this situation very disturbing, with all the funds that are available, I don’t understand why this is not solved. I have been back and forth to Aceh 19 times since January 2005 as tsunami relief coordinator. In August 2006 we started Laga Handbags to help tsunami survivors with jobs and hope for a better future. We are looking for like minded individuals/companies to help us. Please feel free to contact me via email, roy@laga-handbags.com.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2008…..

BagMan aka Roy van Broekhuizen, Chairman & CEO Laga Designs International, Inc.
Irvine, California
December 28, 2007

Hello everyone:

Below is the link to our very first television interview for Laga!
We were very privileged to have the opportunity to air locally here in Irvine.
The interview is also available on the web so that the whole world can see it!
Click here to see it!

Roy and Louise Van Broekhuizen

If you’re Going to Carry a Handbag, Why not Carry One That Helps Rebuild Lives?

Laga Designs International Inc.
1.888.524.2224
40 Summerfield
Irvine, CA 92614-7533
USAWishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008
Bagman

I wanted to post an excerpt from the update sent to us by our partners in Aceh, who are dedicated and diligently working with the tsunami survivors we serve. I thought it was important to let you read their account, personally, in comparison to what the news media reflects. We will continue the good fight, we press on to make sure we do everything we can, to help bring hope to those who continue to struggle… I hope you will find this account helpful~

“Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and the largest city in Aceh. Before the tsunami, it had a population of approximately 280,000 people. The city bore the brunt of the tsunami with a wave as high as 18 meters (60 feet). The disaster took away the lives of 167,736 people (dead or missing until today) and left millions homeless. Now, three years after the earthquake and tsunami, there is still much to be done, and so many still in need. Some of the lives of these people will never be restored. We have a long term commitment to serve the Acehnese people and to help them to build a future…”

It seems almost everyone at this point is closing up shop and leaving Aceh. For most organizations and governments, the experience they had in Aceh has been one of their worst nightmares. Lack of infrastructure, government policies, over commitments, being donor driven, incompetence and many other things have contributed to this. Before the end of December, there will be (it has already begun) a mass exodus of people, organizations and governments from Aceh. One organization we have worked with had over 1,800 full time employees in Aceh in August – by the end of December it will be zero. This is not just one organization, it seems all of them are leaving or seriously scaling back at this time.”

What does it mean for us?? Well, …we will continue moving forward and doing what we can…”

I guess that the hardest part of this for us is that there remains so much to bedone. We are certainly thankful for what has been achieved and the help that we and the Acehnese have received in Aceh. But, there are many people who have received very little help. Especially in the more remote areas, there are still many in tents or other temporary shelters. Much of the provincial infrastructure still remains in ruins. Roads, bridges, electricity and most other infrastructure facilities have not even begun to be repaired. Many villages remain isolated and cut off due to the roads never having been repaired. In the capital city (this would be the BEST case scenario) in November (I was there much of the time!) we averaged 6-8 hours a day without electricity – just to give you one example.”

So, a logical question is where did all the money go that was committed to this disaster? I don’t know – all I can say is, very little of it actually got to where it was most needed.”

We look forward with a heart of expectancy and anticipation…for us, our team and the people of Aceh.”

As you can see it remains imperative, now more than ever, that we continue to do what we can for the people of Aceh. Scaling back is not the answer. Forging ahead is our every intention. 

But we need your help!

Our goals for 2008 are high… so we are dependent on those of you who are willing to move forward with us. We will be recruiting more home party Consultants, as well as seeking out small retailers, nationwide in 2008.If you are interested in joining our Laga team, we look forward to hearing from you!

World Vision Indonesia Tsunami Response:

Final Report Dec 2004 - Dec 2007

The December 2004 earthquake and tsunami was an unprecedented disaster in its size and scale. Indonesia’s Aceh province, which suffered from three decades of civilian conflict, was most affected because of its proximity to the earthquake’s epicenter and its large coastal population. A year after the event, the Indonesian government estimated that 129,775 people had died, 38,786 were missing (presumed dead) and more than 500,000 people were displaced.

World Vision Indonesia Tsunami Response: Final Report Dec 2004 - Dec 2007The December 2004 earthquake and tsunami was an unprecedented disaster in its size and scale. Indonesia’s Aceh province, which suffered from three decades of civilian conflict, was most affected because of its proximity to the earthquake’s epicenter and its large coastal population. A year after the event, the Indonesian government estimated that 129,775 people had died, 38,786 were missing (presumed dead) and more than 500,000 people were displaced. More than 25% of households lost at least one family member. Within the two adjoining districts of Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, nearly 60% of the fatalities and missing were female and one-third under 17yo. Many of the deceased were heads of households or primary wage earners and this tremendous loss of life had a devastating impact on livelihoods. For these households, the recovery has been a struggle, but thanks to their inner strength and the generosity of neighbors, strangers, aid agencies and donors, they are moving forward to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. World Vision launched a massive relief and recovery effort following the disaster. This final report outlines the World Vision Indonesia Tsunami Response programme over the past three years and its impact on the recovery of households.

Background

Program Goal
To support disaster affected communities in developing safe and sustainable environments where children thrive. World Vision designed a three year program to meet the recovery needs of affected communities and to support their longer-term rehabilitation. The program encompassed seven integrated sectors: Shelter & Infrastructure; Economic Recovery, Education; Health; Water and Sanitation, Child Protection and Advocacy.

The implementation of the program was conducted in three phases;

History of Aceh

Monday, Dec 3, 2007

Aceh

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Motto: Pancacita (Five Goals)
Capital	Banda Aceh
Governor	Irwandi Yusuf
Area	57,365.57 km² (22,149 sq mi)
Population	3,930,000  (2000)[1]
Density	68.5/km² (177.4/sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Acehnese (70%), Gayo Lut (7%), Gayo Luwes (5%), Alas (4%), Singkil (3%), Javanese (3%), Simeulu (2%) [2]
Religion	Islam (98.6%), Christianity (0.7%), Hinduism (0.08%), Buddhism (0.55%)
Languages	Indonesian (official), Acehnese
Time zone	WIB (UTC+7)
Web site	www.nad.go.id

See also: Sultanate of Aceh

Aceh (pronounced [?a?t??h], generally Anglicized as IPA: /???t?e?/) is a special territory (daerah istimewa) of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Nanggröe Aceh Darussalam. Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin.

It is thought to have been in Aceh where Islam was first established in Southeast Asia. In the early seventeenth century the Sultanate of Aceh was the most wealthy, powerful and cultivated state in the Malacca Straits region. Aceh has a history of political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and the Indonesian government. Aceh has substantial natural resources, including oil and gas - some estimates put Aceh gas reserves as being the largest in the world. Relative to most of Indonesia, it is a religiously conservative area.

Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which triggered a tsunami that devastated much of the western coast of the region, including part of the capital of Banda Aceh. 167,736 Indonesians, the overwhelming majority in Aceh, were killed or missing and 500,000 made homeless.^[3] This event helped trigger the peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, with the signing of a MoU on August 15, 2005. With the assistance of the European Union through the Aceh monitoring mission as of December 2005, the peace has held.

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Thousands of families, who became victims of the 2004 tsunami, still lived in emergency tents and shelters in West Aceh District, Aceh Province, currently - almost three years after the deadly natural disaster.

Data from the West Aceh District administration showed that around 2,584 families or 10,508 people were still living in 33 emergency tents and temporary shelters in the district.

The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) for Aceh and Nias continued to building houses for tsunami survivors, Alamasyah, a BRR official, said here on Monday.

BRR and NGOs planned to build 16,177 houses for tsunami victims in West Aceh District. Of the target, some 10,027 houses had been completed, and 2,908 houses were being constructed, he said.

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami devastated Aceh
and Nias (North Sumatra) on December 26, 2004, killing at least 170,000
people and rendered almost one million others homeless.

I’ve worked with Laga Handbags for some time now. (As a side note, you’d be hard pressed to find nicer people than Roy and Louise anywhere, especially in the fashion industry)

One of the things that really strikes me is the story of two Christmases. December 26, 2004 - when homes and lives were ravaged beyond what any of us could ever believe. (When I read the stories sent in by tsunami survivors, some of them break my heart. I can not imagine seeing family members torn away by a wall of water and I hope never to experience anything like it in my life.)

Then I think of today and all that has transpired to get to today. Women smiling, because despite what they’ve been through, they have hope for a better tomorrow because of their sewing machines. I wonder if I could be that positive. Magazines like OC and Accessories running stories like “Look Good, Do Good.”  And slowly but surely, lives are being rebuilt.

This holiday season, if you’re having holiday celebrations anyway, why not invite Laga into your home?  Show your friends and family Laga Handbags. Have a home party or even an Internet party, and help build another home and another dream this Christmas. (not to mention that you can earn cash or handbags at the same time)

One of Laga’s home party sellers coined the phrase “If you’re going to carry a handbag anyway, why not make it one that rebuilds lives?” We so agree. 

If you’d like to show Laga Handbags at a holiday party, just contact Louise for information. She’s very approachable and one of the sweetest women I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

We’re proud to say that Laga Handbags is one of the sponsors of a holiday contest at Fuel My Blog. If you’re a blogger, all you need to do is write a post that mentions three sponsors and then add a “comment” with a link to your post so we know you’re in… and you’re in to win.

Thank you to Kevin and Sylvie at FMB for offering such a great contest with so many wonderful prizes.  We’re proud to be part of sharing the holiday spirit with the blogging community.