WEEKLY SUMMARY

Field Operations:
West Coast Reconnaissance Mission:
Our West Coast reconnaissance mission team of Dada Dinakar and Bro. Wayan left by boat to Leupung on 26th Jan with a small load of drinking water (480 x 1.5 litre bottles) and two boxes of super fortified biscuits. They form part of a 6 member relief team in conjunction with a local NGO called Gemma 9. The plan is to set up a buffer camp in Leupung town to assist survivors walking on foot towards relocation camps in Banda Aceh. To give you an idea of the extent of the disaster even huge NGO's like Care have been unable to access some of the stranded small towns along the West Coast not even 50 kms. outside of Banda Aceh due to the obliteration of key bridges and large portions of road that prevents access by anything larger than a 4WD vehicle! We are anxiously awaiting for more news from our reconnaissance team.

Child Care Activities:
The AMURT/AMURTEL teams are coordinating nicely in providing daily, non-formal education and recreational activities for children ages 3-12 years in two camps (Lambpisang and Neuheun) in Aceh Besar District (Greater Banda Aceh area). AMURTEL is additionally engaged in psycho-social counseling for traumatized teenagers in the Neuheun camp. Total number of beneficiaries is about 200 children and youths.
Application has been made to UNICEF to access their school-in-a-box kits for upgrading the materials available to our teaching volunteers in the camps. The children have been highly inspired with our activities. Didi reported how the girls were able to relieve their traumas by drawing and painting activities. The nutritious meals of sweet rice, vegetables, milk and fruit is a wonderful change from the drab diet of rice, noodles and biscuits provided by the major NGO's.

Jr. High School Repair:
Dada Nirmalkrsnanandaji will finalize today the project proposal for the repair of the most important Jr. High School in Banda Aceh city, having received the sketches and cost estimates from the civil engineer yesterday. The total budget comes to $30,000 and Dada is planning to approach several international organizations within Banda Aceh for support. Meanwhile the military has cleared the school of debris so our work may proceed speedily. Dada met again the Deputy Minister of Education who also wants AMURT to build from scratch three other school buildings in the same compound of the Jr. High School. These buildings are heritage sites in the city as their architecture dates back to the Dutch period 100 years earlier! It is a most prestigious project. Not only the schools but also the school plans have been wiped out by the tsunami. So it will be a pain staking effort to attempt to re-construct the schools as they were originally with no plans!

Village Rehabilitation:
Dada Surya Prakash's contact (Pa Asri) turns out to be a former PA to the Aceh Provincial Governor for past seven years! He has been extremely helpful to us in this early phase of our operations. He accompanied us on a visit to the Village chief of Neuheun Village, Aceh Besar (one of the camps where we have our educational activities). In the 3 hour discussion we made tentative plans for two key areas of rehabilitating the village:
1. House reconstruction of 32 destroyed homes and repair of 10 damaged homes in the village. Villagers will adopt the "gatong rayon" (collective self-initiative) method to reconstruct the damaged houses with AMURT material support. As an initial signal of our good intentions AMURT sent three volunteers with ax, wheelbarrow, shovel and hoes to help clean up the village every morning. Neuheun is the largest village (1731 residents) in the Aceh Besar sub-district.
2. Rehabilitating the numerous cottage industry brick kilns which employ 75% of the villagers. We are working on a support scheme that involves 50% credit and 50% grant to the village. The village promises to set aside 5% of net profits for a social upliftment fund to aid the worst affected members from the tsunami disaster. They also commit to hire local villagers first before acquiring laborers from outside the village. It is envisioned that the 50% credit funds will be further used as a revolving micro-credit scheme both within Neuheun and other outlying villages. The added advantage of rehabilitating this cottage industry first is that tons of bricks will be needed in the months ahead as reconstruction of houses commences in full speed. We will have another meeting with Pa Asri and the village chief next Monday
to take our plans further.

Registration of IDP's:
AMURT is working with the head of the Peuniti neighborhood where our offices are located to register IDP's (Indonesian Displaced Persons) and help them to acquire food aid in the short term. Thus far 50 IDP's have been registered in 5 neighborhoods of our area.

General Situation:
The over-all relief operation shows signs of recovery in Banda Aceh city but the situation on the west coast remains in the emergency relief phase with many areas still inaccessible and people facing severe hardships of food and water. In the daily coordination meetings it is indicative to note that the NGO community makes sincere efforts to understand and cooperate as much as possible with the Indonesian government in tackling the massive relief effort. And visa-versa. It is noteworthy that both sides attempt to set aside their egos and pre-conceived notions about the other and collaborate as best as possible for the welfare of the victims. I am impressed with the organizing ability and methodical approach and mobilization capacity of NGO's in dealing with the crisis. I am also surprised to see that in spite of this "efficient" approach, the crisis remains large in the west coast and smaller, flexible NGO's like AMURT can make a difference! Let us see how this scenario plays out as it is also a fact that every day new events constantly re-shape the strategy on how to meet the challenges.

Dada Shiilabhadrananda, Banda Aceh