Displaced Acehnese live with their relatives

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

Nini, 35, fought to break through the crowd of people attempting to board a large boat that would transport refugees to Banda Aceh.

She failed to get through, but she wasn't discouraged. She intended to try again the next day.

On way her back to her camp on a hill in Calang town, Aceh Jaya regency, she met a military police officer who she knew.

The officer suggested that she go down to the Calang port at night, as fewer people tried to board at that time.

"With the help of the military police officer I was able to board the boat, and I was so grateful to him," said Nini, a part- time teacher in Calang that was devastated by the tsunami.

The boat, one of several provided by the Aceh Jaya regental government for Calang refugees, reached Banda Aceh on Wednesday last week, a day after it left Calang.

Upon arriving in Banda Aceh, Nini, who lost her father and three siblings in the disaster, spent a few days in a refugee camp in the Lham Pulo area until her relatives picked her up and took her to their house in the Keutapang subdistrict, near Banda Aceh.

Nini is among the approximately 200,000 displaced persons living outside refugee camps throughout Aceh. The refugees are not recorded by the government as they are living with relatives or friends outside of the camps. Consequently, they do not receive regular aid supplies as the government's disaster mitigation team is still focusing on getting aid into camps.

Only a few families said that they were receiving food aid from the government. One of them, a resident in Keutapang, is accommodating some 50 people from eight families in his house. All of them are relatives.

"The government channeled food aid to our neighborhood head and the head distributed the aid to us," said the resident, who requested anonymity. Since the Dec. 26 disaster, the families had been given 15 kilograms of rice and several packs of instant noodles.

Siti Rohana, a resident in Keutapang subdistrict, said that she was not only accommodating her extended family hit by the disaster but also several other people in need of shelter. After a few days, however, they left her house for refugee camps set up by the government and volunteer groups.

The head of the government's disaster mitigation task force in Aceh, Alwi Shihab, said earlier that he welcomed anyone wishing to move from out from their relatives houses to go to refugee camps.

He said the government was now building 24 relocation centers complete with clean water, sanitation facilities, health facilities and a community hall for refugees currently staying at temporary camps across the province.

"Anyone is welcome to come to these centers," he said.