Struggling for the basics in shelter<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Lhok Nga, Aceh<\/p>\n
It's raining outside, and inside the tent, Ernida is frying
\ntempeh and eggs for a very late lunch. On the other corner of the
\nfour-by-three meter tent, her husband Ridho is playing with their
\nfive-year-old daughter Khairani Maulani.<\/p>\n
The daughter is about the only valuable possession the couple
\nhave left.<\/p>\n
\"Please join us for lunch,\" Ridho offered a visitor on this
\nwet Sunday afternoon. In spite of their conditions, he remained
\ntrue to the Indonesian tradition of generosity toward visitors,
\nespecially when it comes to lunch.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Camp 85L in Lhok Nga, one of several in Lampaya
\ndistrict, the only village still standing in the area.<\/p>\n
Ridho and his family are among 1,400 people now housed in this
\nmakeshift displaced persons shelter.<\/p>\n
On Sunday Dec. 26, Ridho had been visiting relatives here in
\nLampaya when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and following tsunami
\ndevastated most coastal areas of Aceh.<\/p>\n
Their own home in Ulee Lheu near Banda Aceh had been
\ncompletely wiped off the face of the earth and Ridho has become
\nresigned to the likelihood that he had lost all his relatives
\nthere.<\/p>\n
\"I have nowhere else to go,\" said Ridho, adding that he
\nbelieved this would be their home for the next six months.<\/p>\n
Ernida, who is seven months pregnant, added: \"I have to
\ndeliver the baby here.\"<\/p>\n
Ridho is unsure what he will do next. \"We are just waiting for
\nsome kind of direction from the government.\"<\/p>\n
It has rained heavily every night over the past week and
\nturned the camp into a mudbath, adding to the misery here.<\/p>\n
\"Water is still our worst enemy,\" says Tengku Zainun, a
\nresident of Lampaya, who is the designated imam at the 85L
\nRefugee Camp. \"It rains every night, and most of the tents we are
\nsleeping in simply are not water repellent.\"<\/p>\n
Zainun lost his house, rice field and just about everything
\nelse, though all the members of his immediate family -- his wife,
\nson and mother-in-law -- survived.<\/p>\n
\"We have seen some improvements over the last two weeks. We
\nare now getting food and clean water. But with this rain, we need
\nmore tents.\"<\/p>\n
Lampaya was spared the wrath of the tsunami because it is
\npartly sheltered by a hill. Neighboring villages Lam Krut, Wuraya
\nand Moniken were almost completely obliterated because there was
\nnothing to stop the wall of water that rolled in that fateful
\nmorning.<\/p>\n
In these three villages, virtually nothing is left standing.
\nWherever one looks, there are just mounds of rubble and debris,
\nsome of it pushed aside by bulldozers.<\/p>\n
The remains of a cement factory owned by PT Semen Andalas
\nIndonesia, the largest employer in the area, can be seen towards
\nthe end of the road to Lhok Nga, but the only way to get there is
\nby a barge or boat because a key bridge was destroyed.<\/p>\n
Assisting the people at Camp 85L are the Pompiers Sans
\nFrontiere (Firemen Without Borders).<\/p>\n
Jean Cartier, who heads the 10-person team, says the camp
\nneeds up to 30 more tents to be able to ensure that every family
\nhas even a rudimentary shelter above their heads.<\/p>\n
\"Hello Perancis (France in Indonesian),\" some of the children
\nshriek as they see Cartier walk by. Cartier, an old hand when it
\ncomes to emergencies and helping refugees with stints in Rwanda
\nand Albania, greeted them back.<\/p>\n
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had
\nearlier delivered 25 tents for the camp.<\/p>\n
\"That's about all we can do at the moment,\" said Mark Nyberg,
\na Finnish national and now spokesman for the UNHCR operation in
\nAceh.<\/p>\n
\"We wish we could do more, but we also have to think about the
\nrefugees on the western coast of Aceh,\" Nyberg said. \"Over there,
\npeople still sleep in the open.\"<\/p>\n
Nyberg promised that more tents would be made available by
\nUNHCR for displaced people in Aceh. And they are good quality
\ntents, light material but double ply to protect against the water
\nand heat, and thus more comfortable.<\/p>\n
Volunteers, meanwhile, still find bodies among the rubble in
\nLhok Nga, and vehicles belonging to the police or the National
\nMandate Party (PAN) can be seen doing the rounds to collect them
\nand take them to a mass grave in Lampaya.<\/p>\n
A procession of about 10 people walked pass Lampaya, carrying
\nthe remains of Zainal, a security officer at the cement factory,
\nin a black plastic bag.<\/p>\n
His older brother, Adenan, said he and his neighbors heard
\nabout the discovery of the body in the rubble of the factory.
\nThey recognized him by the name tag on his uniform.<\/p>\n
Zainal will now be given a proper burial by his family.
\nThousands of bodies have been buried without being identified
\nfirst.<\/p>\n
If life seems hard for the likes of Ridho, there are others
\nin nearby camps that are not so lucky.<\/p>\n
Food distributed to the camps was not being divided equally
\nbetween the groups within the camp, Burhanuddin Abdullah, an
\nAcehnese man who lost his wife and child, and now works as a
\nvolunteer, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"Some groups are stronger than the others. They get all the
\nfood, while others are left to beg.\"<\/p>\n
Even in this most difficult of times, many refugees still
\ncount their blessings. They know that things could be worse, and
\nknow that others did not survive.<\/p>\n
\"I am lucky, because I got a nice tent. I thank the French
\npeople,\" Ridho said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/struggling-for-the-basics-in-shelter-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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