Rehabilitation
From this activity, we started to discover the needs of the survivors on the long road to rehabilitate and reconstruct their lives. Education was one priority. AMURT and AMURTEL raised funds to repair, renovate and construct six schools. In addition 36 house were constructed for families that had lost their house in the tsunami.

From April 2005, AMURT worked with survivors to rebuild the local economy, starting with the rehabilitation of the brick factories in Neuheun. We are delighted that the forty-two brick kilns now operate again, and make a substantial contribution to the overall rebuilding effort in Banda Aceh. Their businesses is thriving!

AMURTEL has been supporting livelihood programs for women. Our sewing program has provided 130 tailors (who lost their equipment in the tsunami) with the opportunity to earn their own sewing machines, as well as cash income, by sewing school uniforms for local schools. The women have already sewn uniforms for 3,920 schoolchildren of all ages, from kindergarten to senior high school.

AMURTEL’s cake-making program has provided cake-making equipment and ingredients to 40 women from two resettlement barracks. The program started just in time to catch the peak Ramadan demand for cakes with which to break fast. After selling their cakes for a profit, the women repay a portion of the start-up capital in five monthly installments of cakes which AMURTEL distributes free to orphans, the disabled and the elderly.

Ibu Yanti, 30, a beneficiary of our cake-making program lost her only child – a 5-year boy – in the tsunami. In addition to making cakes for sale, she also supervises the children participating in AMURTEL’s traditional dance program at Barak Bada.

In Meulaboh, AMURT worked with Sun Spirit, a Jakarta-based NGO, on the first organic farming project in Aceh. The 240 farmers have learnt techniques such as mulching, composting, and the production of fertilizer, pesticide and insecticide. They consume most of the crops (such as lettuce, spinach, carrots, beans, tomato) themselves but hope to sell the produce in the future. One of the project staff is so inspired by the project that he plans to name his first son “Organic!”

Development
Since January 2006 AMURT has accomplished some large and much needed developmental projects. The focus is on  education, and in particularly orphans, building schools and hostels. A computer literacy program for high school students is another program where we invest in the Acehnese potential beyond aid.

Community
Many tsunami survivors have expressed deep gratitude for the services we have provided them. They never imagined that their grief would be eased by strangers from different lands. On one occasion two Europeans saw AMURT taking children from a resettlement camp on a trip to the sea beach for the fist time since the tsunami. They were impressed with the rapport and familiarity we had developed with our little “friends”. This has become the identity of the volunteers and workers of  AMURT and AMURTEL in this operation: an adaptable multi-national organization undertaking diverse programs through people-to-people connections. We give a special thanks to our Acehnese staff who have became part of our extended family.

Projects completed in Aceh

• More than 15,000 parcels of food, water and medicines distributed
• 2500 family resettlement kits distributed
• 42 small brick factories re-constructed or repaired.
• Two orphanages constructed
• Two new kindergartens constructed
• Two kindergartens, two primary schools and one orphanage repaired
• 36 new houses constructed
• Recreational kits benefiting more than 3,000 children distributed
• Computer and intern access provided for hundreds of high school students
• 945 benefited from eye camps
• Sewing machines distributed for livelihood recovery for 130 women
• Counseling, child care and English classes provided in several camps for
  displaced people (ongoing)