Helping Aceh Communities to Help Themselves
MEDAN, INDONESIA, March 13, 2007—Tsunami survivors in Aceh are helping members of their own communities thanks to training, support and encouragement from the United Methodist Committee on Relief. These communities are determining needs and providing assistance to vulnerable families and schoolchildren as a result of UMCOR's Integrated Rehabilitation of Tsunami Affected Communities (IRTAC) Project in Bireuen District, Aceh.
When the December 2004 tsunami struck Aceh, many families' livelihoods—including fishing boats, rice paddies, small markets and livestock—were destroyed. UMCOR's office in Indonesia has been working in five villages in Bireuen District of Aceh to provide families with the materials and skills needed to restart their businesses or to launch new businesses to enable families to earn an income again. Approximately 250 income generation packages have been distributed by UMCOR to date, and most packages benefit multiple families in each village. Packages include all the materials needed to start and run a successful business. UMCOR has also provided business skills training to 317 entrepreneurs in these five villages, giving them the information and skills they need to develop a business plan and better manage their businesses. Ongoing skills training specific to the businesses and materials selected by beneficiaries has also been provided. The training was conducted by agriculture, veterinary, fisheries, and other technical consultants working with UMCOR. This comprehensive livelihood assistance—all funded by generous donations to UMCOR following the tsunami—will enable families to earn sustainable incomes and to support their families for years to come.
Giving Back
But UMCOR has done more than just provide training and livelihoods packages. Through Community Development Committees, UMCOR is also enabling communities to help themselves. Recipients of income generation packages are required to repay 25% of the value of the materials received in livelihoods packages to vulnerable members of their community, through services or goods. The repayment of these "social loans" is organized by the community committee, with UMCOR's support and oversight. This repayment—which multiplies the gift of UMCOR's financial contributions—is now underway in the project villages.
In Kuala Raja village, 38 out of 53 UMCOR-assisted entrepreneurs have already given repayment to their communities. In December 2006, to celebrate and honor the Muslim holiday Idul Adha, a feast of sacrifice in which communities often provide food for the poor and hungry, recipients of UMCOR income generation assistance provided 60 kilos of rice to 13 vulnerable families in Kuala Raja village. In February 2007, other recipients of income generation assistance in Kuala Raja village provided 72 schoolchildren with school notebooks, pens, and school shirts. Some of the families that received rice and some of the schoolchildren that received school supplies—such as Rasyidah (age 10) and Nurinda (age 9), who lost relatives and their houses in the tsunami—have already received new permanent houses from UMCOR or have benefited from the road and drainage channels that UMCOR built in the project villages.
Through the new income generation projects that are now underway, UMCOR will continue to enable tsunami-affected families in Aceh to rebuild their livelihoods as well as support communities to find the ways and means to help themselves.
UMCOR established its Indonesia office in 2005 to assist in tsunami recovery. UMCOR was among the first organizations to work in the Bireuen District of Aceh Province.
