Aceh tsunami refugees in desperate need of jobs

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

Sitting on a bench in the shade of a tree, Rosdiana, 50, was having a lengthy conversation about the latest travails of her husband, Malik. Not far away was Sarbeni, 45, cuddling his three- year old daughter Fazla.

But both scenes were far from pretty pictures of a family outing on a nice afternoon that some might have presumed -- both Rosdiana and Sarbeni have been sitting around idly like that the whole day, because they have nothing else to do as displaced persons except sit around in their tent city.

Although Banda Aceh is trying to get back on its feet after being devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster, most of the Acehnese who have taken refuge in the many camps throughout the city are jobless, with nothing better to do than sleep and wait around for their daily rations of food aid from donors.

Such a condition, has obviously eaten away at their dignity, and most human beings in such a situation could never feel whole.

"I used to be a seamstress earning approximately Rp 3 million (some US$333) per month, before the tsunami literally swallowed up my store," Rosdiana said. "Now I have nothing. Now I AM nothing!"

Her one consolation, was that her husband and two children survived the tragedy with her, in contrast to the many families who lost multiple children, cousins and grandparents.

But now, after a month languishing in a state of limbo at a displaced persons camp in Peuniti subdistrict, Rosdiana said she could barely stand it anymore.

"I have to do something, to give me back a sense of independence," she said. "Fortunately, my husband has managed to get a job driving trucks between Banda Aceh and Medan, so maybe we can start saving some money to buy a new sewing machine."

Rosdiana heard the camps in other places had already begun a program to find appropriate activities and temporary jobs for people to do in their spare time, but such a program has not reached her camp yet.

"I don't know why," she said. "The officials running this camp have not even properly registered us."

Sarbeni, a former becak mesin (motorized pedicab) driver, who usually earned about Rp 1 million per month, said that he too had begun feeling frustrated at not being able to make a living after the tsunami pulverized his pedicab.

"If I could get a temporary job, I could at least use the money to buy my wife and daughter some food that is a bit better than the daily rations we get," he said.

Sarbeni said he already had plans to try out his luck as a vegetable vendor, although he admitted he still did not know where to get the money to start.

"But I think I can manage if I try. I'll just ask the others how they did it," he said confidently, pointing to others at the camp who have started to open small kiosks selling drinks and cigarettes.

Commenting on the situation, head of the province's Manpower Agency, Abdul Manan Ganto, said the disaster would, of course, drastically increase the unemployment situation in the province.

"We do not have the exact data of how much the increase will be, but as an illustration, the number of refugees now amounts to at least 600,000. Even if we discount the number of housewives and children who did not have jobs before, the new number of unemployed would still be high," he told The Jakarta Post.

Aceh, with a population of 4.2 million, had an estimated 250,000 jobless people before the disaster.

What is worse, Abdul added, was the fact that much of Banda Aceh's production and business centers were totally obliterated by the quake or the ensuing tidal wave.

Nevertheless, Abdul said the government is trying to create jobs for the people by providing temporary jobs during the rehabilitation and reconstruction period.

Afterwards, Abdul said, the government had also planned to recruit more displaced people with masonry and woodwork skills in the reconstruction process. As with the clean-up work, however, the reconstruction project would only be able to absorb up to 100 people each day, due to the lack of funds and equipment.

Abdul also hoped that domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations and donor agencies working in Aceh could help out the situation by hiring qualified refugees for their relief effort activities in the province.

Faisal, 36, a fisherman from Meulaboh taking refuge at the Gue Gajah camp, questioned the fairness of the job selection.

"Many of the available jobs are only being offered to people of Banda Aceh who actually did not suffer much from the disaster, apart from knee-high flooding of their homes," he said.

"Refugees from other coastal towns, who have lost everything they own and really need a job to get some money, have no access to the jobs on offer."