Acehnese woman finds solace through sewing

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Meulaboh

Kartini rocks her daughter, Rafi Karanda (4 months old), to sleep in a miniature cloth hammock hanging from the door. After she is sure that Rafi is asleep, she begins sewing.

"I sew in this studio in order to temporarily get away from the tent. Sewing in the studio helps ease my trauma," she said.

The 30-year-old mother has good reasons for being traumatized. She lost her husband and a son to the tsunami disaster in December last year. Now, there are two children left, namely Rafi and Rima.

Kartini, the resident of Meulaboh, West Aceh regency, joined the sewing studio earlier this month. The sewing studio was set up by Samaritan's Purse, a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), that was established to help mothers affected by the tsunami. As part of its efforts to help the Acehnese women, the organization has opened sewing and cooking studios, and a trauma counseling center.

Joining the sewing studio has given Kartini an escape from the tent. Living in a tent has been a miserable experience for her. She has to hug her children tightly to her when the wind rises and rocks the tent. In such situations, the trauma inflicted by the tsunami comes back to haunt her. "By sewing, I can ease the trauma, although I always have to make sure Rafi is OK," she said.

She only earns a little money from sewing. She even has to pay Rp 4,000 (0.4 U.S. cents) per day on the minibus to take her to and from the displaced persons camp where her tent is located. She is also frequently distracted from her sewing by Rafi. But, the fact that she can still sew makes Kartini happy.

Now, Kartini is dreaming that maybe one day she will be able to buy her own sewing machine so that she can sew by herself and make more money. She imagines having a house and sewing for a living.

Kartini was a seamstress before the tsunami hit Aceh's coastal areas on Dec. 26 last year. She had a lot of customers in her former kampong in Padang Serahet subdistrict, Johan Pahlawan district, West Aceh regency. The subdistrict is in the center Meulaboh, a coastal city in West Aceh regency.

Many of her customers perished in the tsunami, but she hopes that her remaining customers will remember her and will be willing to use her services.

The sewing studio where Kartini now works every day was established on Aug. 2 and it will stay open for three months. A total of 43 people attend the studio and all are victims of the tsunami. The NGO that helped set up the studio hopes that the women, including Kartini, will become self-reliant after learning sewing skills at the studio.

For Kartini, who is already a skilled seamstress, her participation in the sewing studio is only temporary. In the studio, she sews school uniforms that will be handed out free to child victims of the tsunami. She is paid between Rp 25,000 and Rp 27,000 by Samaritan's Purse for each uniform she makes.

Despite making only a little money, Kartini nevertheless says that attending the studio is much better than sitting scared in her tent as the wind threatens to blow it down.