South East Asia
Aceh, Indonesia
Windows to the World
Before the tsunami, Aceh had been closed to outsiders (including non-Acehnese Indonesians) for several years because of civil unrest. Not surprisingly, the economy was far from vibrant and the standard of living lagged far behind. Till today, very few Acehnese have had a chance to touch a computer.
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AMURTEL’s “Window to the World” Computer and Internet Education program aims to bring basic computer skills to the children and staff at Banda Aceh Junior High School No.7. It is the first school in Aceh with a computer lab equipped with 21 computers. AMURTEL employed Banda Aceh’s best commercial computer school to provide training in basic computer and internet skills to 80 students and 35 teachers. From this group, the cream of the crop were put through further courses so that they may form a core group that will pass on basic computer skills to the rest of the school. Today, the teachers who graduated from the Training of Trainers Computer Program are conducting computer classes as part of the school curriculum and as extracurricular subjects with the graduate trainee students acting as student assistants.
Tsunami relief and re-construction in Aceh 2005-2006
In the immediate aftermath of one the world's largest humanitarian
disasters, AMURT focused on providing emergency supplies to the
survivors. AMURTEL, provided counseling to those who had lost beloved
family members, their homes, their livelihoods, everything.
About 175,000 hectares of land had been devastated and an estimated
500,000 persons were homeless. Many of the traumatized survivors had
their little children snatched from their grasp by the merciless tsunami
wave. With the cries of their loved ones still ringing in their ears,
they had searched amongst the multitude of mangled bodies for missing
relatives. All were, and still are, suffering varying degrees of trauma.
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.
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The Bada kindergarten constructed by AMURTEL |
Tsunami victims perform traditional dance |
Sewing livelihood project
One of the immediate needs after the Tsunami was to provide the
internally displaces people (IDPs) with work as a means of earning an
income. At the same time, the work activity could act as a form of
psychological rehabilitation in overcoming the trauma.
In AMRUTEL’s Sewing Program, participants earned some cash income plus a
sewing machine each by sewing school uniforms which were then given free
of charge to needy Acehnese schoolchildren. This program was implemented
in 6 barracks and covered 130 participants who earned a sewing machine
each. Altogether, they sewed almost 4,000 sets of school uniforms which
were distributed to some of the poorest schools in the district.
The program was followed up by advanced workshops so that the women could make a livelihood out of tailoring.
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AMURTEL has provided sewing machines |
The finished school uniforms are distributed to needy students |