The Rebuilding in Aceh

Ten months after the tsunami hit the Indonesian province of Aceh on December 26, 2004, the people are slowly rebuilding their lives, their homes and their communities.

Sewing and tailoring training for women

The devastation caused by the earthquake and the wall of water was immense. A total of 127, 000 people died in Aceh, and another 37, 000 were missing, presumed dead. Millions were left homeless and in northern and western Aceh, almost everything within 2-3 kilometres of the sea was wiped away.

Thanks to generous donations from unions and many individual union members, totaling $1.3 million, Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA was able to assist both Aceh and Sri Lanka during the emergency phase, and are now continuing to work with our partners in the rebuilding phase.

Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA is working on several projects in Aceh with local trade unions, the ILO, a number of Global Union Federations and local Acehnese community organisations, to deliver training and skills education to working men and women and the families who lost their livelihood due to the tsunami.

In one project APHEDA is working with the Acehnese Nurses Union (PPNI), assisting 78 volunteer nurses to deliver health care to over 46,000 people living in five camps for internally displaced people.

In another project APHEDA is working with the ILO and local unions on skills training for workers, who have lost their source of income, in the city of Lhokseumawe, this project will soon expand to other areas of Aceh. Skills training for working men and women, in order to help them develop decent livelihoods, earn an income or get a job is crucial for families to survive.

Another project is delivering skills training to women through a local Acehenese community organisation, the People's Crisis Centre. The funding of this project is also assisted by a grant from the British Trades Union Council. Initially women are making and selling umbrellas, one umbrella can keep a family in rice for five days. Tailoring and sewing training has also begun.

The British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and several Global Union Federations are also campaigning to strengthen workers rights in Aceh to ensure that workers have decent jobs that pay enough for their families to live with dignity.

A fourth project is working with the Acehnese environmental organisation, WAHLI, to develop an environmental resource centre, as well as improving their capacity to deliver environmental training. As Aceh rebuilds, it is important that the reconstruction, as well as agricultural and farming methods, be carried out in a sustainable way, and the small amount of forest remaining in the mountains is not plundered for short-term profit.

Central to the rebuilding efforts is the peace process, where the 30 years of struggle by the Acehnese people for independence has been halted, and a peace agreement signed between Indonesia and Aceh. This peace agreement has resulted in the beginning of a withdrawal of Indonesian troops from Aceh, the laying down of arms by the GAM (Free Aceh movement) and the presence of European peace-keepers. Without this peace agreement, any efforts at rebuilding and development in Aceh would have been tenuous.

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 16:05:18 EST
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