Acehnese children paint happier pictures of life

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

Laughing and shouting at each other, dozens of children rushed out of their temporary shelter in Lambaro refugee camp just outside Banda Aceh and ran to a general purpose building nearby to take part in a drawing and coloring event organized by a number of volunteers groups from Jakarta and Banda Aceh.

"I want some crayons and paper, please. I haven't got any," cried latecomer Rahma, 6, enthusiastically while trying to catch her breath.

She grabbed the crayon and the piece of paper handed to her, and directly joined the other children sitting in a semicircle facing two psychologists, who gave them advice about how to draw and color in pictures.

"I like red and black. What colors do you like?" she asked a boy beside her, who also appeared keen to get started on his drawing and coloring as quickly as possible.

Rahma is one of thousands of children who have lost homes and relatives to the Dec. 26 tsunami. She still has her mother but lost her father in the disaster. She and her mother have been in Lambaro camp since last week.

Rahma and her mother, like hundreds of other families in Lambaro camp, are struggling to cope with all the difficulties they face.

"We must help the refugees, especially mothers and their children, to get through this difficult phase. Basically, what we want to do is to restore the smiles to the children's faces. Like all other children, they need to be able to play," said Mulia Muslim of Dua Rajawali Perkasa, a volunteer psychologist who coordinates healing program activities in Lambaro camp.

Together with the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI), the Jakarta Psychology Association and the NAD Psychology Association, Dua Rajawali Perkasa, a private psychology foundation, has recruited many students as volunteers to help out in the camp.

Mulia said that they were trying to condition the children to share with others so that solidarity among the refugees in the camp could be instilled right from the very beginning.

"They come from different areas and backgrounds, and now they have to live together in a strange place like this. Sooner or later, conflict is inevitable. That's why they have to be able to share with each other. For instance, we teach children that they can get other colored crayons by exchanging theirs with those of other children," she said.

The volunteers also have a unique way of helping the tsunami victims cope with the trauma. In a museum in Banda Aceh, several volunteers from different non-governmental organizations have jointly staged an exhibition of around 300 paintings painted by child victims of the tsunami who are living temporarily in persentren (Islamic boarding schools) throughout the province.

"It is very important that the child victims express what their feelings are inside, and what they can remember from the tragedy as part of the healing process," said Abdel Salam of UK- based Islamic Relief, a sponsor of the exhibition.

All of the 300 paintings, 50 of which will be exhibited in Europe and America some time in March, show a common theme -- how the tsunami wrecked their homes and washed away all their belongings.

One of the paintings is a picture of a snake-like tsunami that seems set to swallow up people and buildings.

"I just draw what I can remember. I keep remembering how the water took away my mother," said one of the artists, Idawati, 12, who is now living temporarily in a pesentren in Banda Aceh.

Help also came from international NGO World Vision, which said it was looking after some 1,000 children at its child friendly spaces (CFS) in five locations in Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya, Aceh Barat and Aceh Barat Daya.

"CFS provides places for children where they can engage in their routine activities like they used to, and be active in the post-tsunami trauma phase," said the organization in a press release.