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Tsunami reconstruction
update |
Starting at Aceh’s Ground Zero
It is early morning in Aceh.
The International Federation’s landing craft, Sumber
Mas, travelled through dark waters just north-west of Aceh
province in Sumatra, Indonesia in March. The Sumber Mas was
carrying two fully-loaded, five-tonne cargo trucks, a small
pick-up, stacks of large water tanks and neat piles of supplies
and tools. The cargo was destined for Pulau Aceh, a small
island in the vicinity of what is referred to as Aceh’s
Ground Zero. Also aboard were International Federation delegates
and members of the British Red Cross (BRC) and Indonesian
Red Cross (PMI).
There is no village left where the
boat has landed at Gugup on Pulau Aceh. The 26 December tsunami
obliterated every building, tore away the streets, and even
gouged deep into the rocky earth, carving a new bay where
much of the village once stood.
If the earth herself could be reconstructed,
the recovery of Aceh could still never be complete. In tiny
Gugup, Fiona McShee, BRC technical adviser, says 520 of 810
villagers perished. Over 100 of the 290 survivors are under
the age of 17, because most of the school-age children happened
to be away at a graduation ceremony in a neighbouring village
on the morning of the disaster. There are 55 orphans, 25 widows
and 37 widowers; everyone here lost a loved one.
For the next few years, as part of
a BRC and PMI livelihoods and reconstruction programme, villagers
from Gugup will come to Pulau Aceh in shifts of 100 or so
to begin the slow work of cleaning the debris-strewn ruins
of their village. As part of 13,000 Acehnese families in the
programme’s planned scope, they will receive money for
their work, which they will budget for food and other necessities.
Later, they will redraw their new villages,
stake out their plots, choose housing plans and open bank
accounts where the programme will deposit incremental payments
for them to buy materials for constructing their own houses
or businesses.
But, being able to buy lumber will
be a challenge, as supplies are scarce.
Logistical problems will also slow
down the reconstruction process. Distances are great, roads
and bridges are still damaged or destroyed. There is no electricity.
Communications are unreliable at best. Access can be impossible.
It’s going to be a very long time before Aceh’s
Ground Zero is a village again.
| Virgil
Grandfield
Virgil Grandfield is International Federation information
delegate in Aceh, Indonesia.
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INDONESIA
With Indonesia the country most devastated by the 26 December
2004 earthquake and tsunami, and then struck again by another
strong quake on 28 March 2005, the consequent need for assistance
is enormous. Aid has been offered both through supporting
the International Federation and the ICRC in a traditional
multilateral approach, and through bilateral agreements with
the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).
|
International Federation
Main reconstruction activities include:
• Provision of basic relief items and food parcels
for 300,000 people affected by the tsunami in Aceh,
north Sumatra.
• Provision of basic relief items and food parcels
for 229,000 people affected by the 28 March earthquake
in Nias, north Sumatra.
• Provision of health care services, both curative
and preventative, through 12 mobile health clinics for
200,000 people.
• Provision of health services and first aid in
12 camps for 20,000 displaced people.
• Reconstruction, rehabilitation and equipping
of 20 clinics.
• Provision of potable water supply in 200 affected
villages for 200,000 people.
• Well rehabilitation, latrine provision and hygiene
promotion in 17 temporary living centres and 200 villages
for approximately 134,000 people.
• Rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools
and community centres.
• Training 200 Red Cross volunteers and 1,000
community members to provide psychological support to
communities.
• Community-based disaster preparedness training
and disaster response trainings for at least 2,850 Red
Cross volunteers.
• Strengthening emergency response/preparedness
capacity in most high-risk areas in Indonesia, including
early warning/emergency communication systems.
• Construction of over 25,000 homes in Aceh province
and 2,500 homes on Nias island.
• Income assistance for 25,000 families of approximately
US $3,000 to 5,000 for each.
• Planting mangrove trees along Aceh’s coastline
employing local people to carry out the work.
• Ongoing capacity-building support for PMI. |
ICRC
Main activities in response to the tsunami and ongoing
conflict include:
• Provide 15,000 internally displaced people (IDP),
host and returnee families with 300 clean-up kits to
facilitate community-based clean-up and enable them
to salvage damaged belongings.
• Provide 10,000 IDP, host and returnee families
with 200 community-reconstruction kits to facilitate
the repair of and move back to their homes.
• Improve public health services for an estimated
27,000 people in villages not assisted by other organizations.
• Continue to provide chemicals and assistance
with emergency maintenance of water-treatment facilities
in the main urban areas of Aceh province.
• Tracing family members with the PMI and support
family reunifications involving children and other vulnerable
groups such as elderly and sick people.
• The ICRC will continue to provide medical supplies
to health facilities in Aceh.
• The 100-bed ICRC/PMI field hospital, provided
by the Norwegian Red Cross, has been handfed over to
the Indonesian authorities.
• The ICRC will continue to ensure that all people
in the region arrested and held in connection with conflict,
violence or alleged terrorist offences benefit from
satisfactory material, physical and psychological conditions
of detention and humane treatment.
• Ensure that detainees are able to restore and
maintain contact with their relatives.
• The ICRC is helping to restore the capacity
of the PMI in Aceh to respond to needs arising from
conflict or natural disaster.
|
| Partner National
Societies
American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, British
Red Cross, Belgian Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, Danish
Red Cross, French Red Cross, German Red Cross, Hong
Kong branch of Red Cross Society of China, Japanese
Red Cross, Korean Red Cross, Malaysian Red Crescent,
Netherlands Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross, Saudi Arabian
Red Crescent Society, Singapore Red Cross, Spanish Red
Cross, Swiss Red Cross, Taiwan Red Cross Organization,
Turkish Red Crescent Society. |
|
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SRI
LANKA
In Sri Lanka over 31,000 people lost their lives, 21,000
were injured and 5,000 remain missing. More than 500,000 were
forced from their homes. 100,000 people are still living in
nearly 300 temporary camps for internally displaced people.
Over 70 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies contributed
towards the post-tsunami relief efforts and more than 30 are
directly involved in relief and recovery operations.
|
International Federation
Main reconstruction activities include:
• Reconstruction and rehabilitation of 34 health
facilities in ten affected districts throughout Sri
Lanka.
• Improvement of temporary living conditions for
300,000 people living in camps.
• Construction of 15,000 houses, providing homes
for 75,000 people.
• Assistance to 30,000 families who have had their
livelihoods damaged or destroyed.
• Replacement of damaged local water and sanitation
systems and provision of sanitation services to benefit
100,000 people.
• Provision of psychological support and health
services for 50,000 people.
• Restoration of livelihoods of 14,000 people,
providing tools and equipment to carpenters, tailors,
fishermen.
• Organization of community debris clearance programmes.
• Enhancement of community-based health programmes.
• Training in disaster preparedness for Red Cross
staff, volunteers and communities.
• Development of responsive first-aid programmes
at community level.
• Development of voluntary blood donor recruitment
programme.
• Ongoing institutional capacity building of the
Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS).
|
ICRC
Main activities in response to the tsunami and ongoing
conflict include:
• Provide families with in-kind assistance or
cash vouchers that enable them to replace or repair
vital assets.
• Repair public infrastructure or re-establish
traditional income-generating activities in 60 communities,
and in 60 more inland or neighbouring villages that
have been affected economically by the tsunami.
• Provide 5,000 people living in camps with tents
and establish temporary water supply for them.
• Provide technical and material support for the
National Water Supply and Drainage Board.
• Deliver equipment to ten primary health care
facilities to provide outpatient and antenatal care.
• Distribute medical and surgical supplies for
ten hospitals and five specialized regional hospitals.
• Support a SLRCS mobile health team serving those
affected by the tsunami in Mutur and Eachchilampattai.
• Continue to support the SLRCS’s ability
to restore family links, provide community health education,
respond to the needs of victims of conflict and promote
international humanitarian law.
|
Partner National Societies
American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, Austrian
Red Cross, Belgian Red Cross, British Red Cross, Canadian
Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, French
Red Cross, German Red Cross, Hong Kong branch of Red
Cross Society of China, Irish Red Cross, Japanese Red
Cross, Korean Red Cross, Luxembourg Red Cross, Malaysian
Red Crescent, Netherlands Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross,
Saudi Arabian Red Crescent, Singapore Red Cross, Spanish
Red Cross, Swiss Red Cross, Taiwan Red Cross Organization,
Turkish Red Crescent.
|
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Sri
Lanka: grief and courage
“My relatives and neighbours
visit a lot,” explains 32-year-old Ameen Faseela.
“They encourage me to be normal.
I cry often over my lost children, but they give me moral
strength.” When the tsunami hit the town of Muthur in
eastern Sri Lanka on 26 December, she and her husband, Abdul
Jabar Ameen, lost their three-month-old son as well as a 6-year-old
nephew they had cared for since infancy.
“Like many others in the town,
we try not to feel too much. If we allow our emotions to come
through, who will take care of the children?” she asks.
It is during the night that the events come back to her.
Her husband pilots the small boat which
serves as an ICRC ferry between Muthur and Trincomalee, a
half-hour trip across the bay. He was at sea when the tsunami
devastated his home and family.
“At first I was too preoccupied
with the children to worry about my husband,” says his
wife, “but then my son started asking about his father
and we prayed for him.”
Faseela says she not only receives
support from her neighbours, in turn she also helps them.
“I ask them how they lived through it and I tell my
story,” she explains. “We talk about how we all
survived and how we must continue our lives together.”
Ameen returned to work piloting the
ICRC boat three days after the tsunami. “Sometimes when
I am at sea, I imagine my house and family under water,”
he says. “It’s better when I am working with other
ICRC staff and avoid thinking about my family.”
“He has a job to do,” explains
his wife. |
International
Federation reconstruction programme
in other tsunami-affected regions |
| MALDIVES
• Provision of temporary shelter for 9,500 people.
• Provision of 5,000 mattresses and cooking utensils
for 3,000 people.
• Community clear-up programmes and waste management
for 200,000 people.
• Provision of community water storage and distribution
system for 50,000 people.
• Improvement of water and sanitation facilities
for 4,000 people.
• Improvement of rain harvesting systems for 100,000
people.
• Support livelihood requirements of 10,000 people
through various relief items.
• Construction of 2,150 homes to benefit over
10,000 people.
• Construction of two pre-schools, two primary
schools, one secondary school, one town hall, one community
centre and one community guest house.
• Reconstruction and rehabilitation of damaged
health centres and hospitals.
• Provision of psychological support for communities.
• Formation of a Red Cross or Red Crescent National
Society.
Partner National Societies
American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, Canadian Red
Cross, French Red Cross, German Red Cross. |
MYANMAR
• Provision of relief support to up to 15,000
tsunami-affected people, including family kits and family
packs.
• Provision of housing construction material,
fishing boats and nets for up to 15,000 people to rebuild
their livelihoods.
• Health and hygiene promotion activities in the
affected areas through Red Cross volunteers.
• Provision of safe drinking water through the
installation of water sanitation facilities.
• Provision of adequate number of latrines and
sanitation equipment to affected families.
• Provision of psychosocial support for victims
and relief workers.
• Strengthening the capacity of Myanmar Red Cross
to prepare for and respond to disasters with pre-positioned
stock to benefit 20,000 families.
• Provision of community-based disaster management,
water safety and lifeguard training courses.
• Establishment of emergency response volunteer
network.
• Support to the Myanmar Red Cross to improve
their logistics capacity and to increase their emergency
stocks.
Partner National Societies
Red Cross Society of China. |
|
MALAYSIA
• Pre-positioning of relief supplies for Kedah
state and eastern states prone to flooding.
• Organization of training courses on community-based
disaster preparedness and response, logistics and psychological
support for National Society staff and volunteers.
• Improvement of disaster management systems.
SOMALIA
• Provision of health education, access to safe
water and adequate sanitation to the affected communities.
• Treatment of communicable diseases and distribution
of oral rehydration solutions and medicines.
• upgrading of local water and sanitation systems,
and conducting of community-level hygiene promotion.
• Strengthening national disease outbreak response
capabilities.
• Development of information systems and national
contingency plans.
• Strengthening disaster management and logistics
management capacities of the Somali Red Crescent Society.
Partner National Societies
German Red Cross. |
INDIA
• Replenishment of 50,000 non-food family packs
and 20,000 family tents.
• Provision of 5,000 sets of basic furniture and
5,000 kitchen sets for communities who lost their belongings.
• Provision of livelihood support for affected
fishing communities to benefit 17,000 families (85,000
people) by the provision of 700 new wooden boats, 390
new motorized boats, 1,500 new rope-making machines,
1,000 sewing machines and 500 fishing nets.
• Renovation of 155 cyclone centres.
• Construction of 50 houses.
• Rehabilitation and reconstruction of 3,000 shops.
• Provision of continuous assistance for rehabilitation
and recovery needs of disaster-affected populations.
• Support community-based disaster preparedness,
basic health care and education, and psychological support
programmes.
• Set up community response programme for early
warning system.
• Support the Indian Red Cross in strengthening
its disaster response and preparedness capacity.
Partner National Societies
Canadian Red Cross, Hong Kong branch of Red Cross Society
of China, Spanish Red Cross. |
|
THAILAND
• Provision of basic health-care services to
benefit 20,000 people in six provinces through trained
and equipped health volunteers.
• Provision of 5,000 family first-aid kits for
families living in the temporary and permanent shelters
in six provinces.
• Upgrading a health-care centre and a district
hospital with the necessary vehicles, medical equipment
and medicines to benefit 26,500 people in Lanta Island.
• Installation of water purification systems in
12 schools in six tsunami-affected provinces for approximately
6,000 students to have access to clean water.
• Provision of psychosocial support services for
affected families including a special initiative for
3,000 children.
• Replacement or repair of 2,000 fishing boats
and livelihood restoration for 2,000 fishermen.
• Disaster reduction training courses with local
communities.
• Water safety and water rescue trainings.
• Public awareness training regarding early warning
systems.
Partner National Societies
American Red Cross, British Red Cross, French Red Cross,
Finnish Red Cross, Red Cross Society of China, Hong
Kong branch of the Red Cross Society of China, Swedish
Red Cross. |
SEYCHELLES
• Provision of various forms of relief and recovery
support to benefit 350 families for tsunami and landslide-affected
families.
• Re-establishment of the livelihoods of 50 fishermen.
• Support to 30 families with building materials
to enable them to rebuild their homes.
• Pre-position disaster preparedness and health
stocks in high-risk areas for 1,000 families.
• Development of a contingency plan for floods/
cyclones and a disaster management plan and a disaster
relief transport system for the Seychelles Red Cross.
• Establishment of links with coast guard service
for harmonized water safety and rescue actions.
• Establishment of community-based risk reduction
programmes.
Partner National Societies
British Red Cross, French Red Cross.
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