Focusing on the living among the dead

Cameron Bates, Contributor, Banda Aceh

Yanti does not consider herself lucky to have survived first the earthquake and then the wall of water that wiped more than 70 percent of the town of Meulaboh, Aceh province, off the face of the planet.

Nor does she consider herself fortunate not to have been in her hometown of Lamno, further north along the devastated western Aceh coastline where her mother, father, sisters and brothers, like countless thousand others, suffered unimaginable deaths.

Nor does the 24-year-old believe, given the sheer scale of the disaster, that her story of survival is remarkable; first in Meulaboh and then Lamno as she searched refugee camps and then inspected corpses to find her immediate family, of the joy and pain of finding extended relatives alive and of navigating murky waters littered with debris and the dead on a crowded boat headed for the provincial capital.

But she is thankful; thankful that her aunt and her home were spared and thankful that International Relief and Development (IRD), a U.S.-based, non-governmental organization with operations throughout Indonesia that is renting the house, has provided her with a job, which she is using to help overcome her suffering.

"I feel so bad; of course, that feeling is still there, but what are you going to do? Are you going to cry every day? We have to accept the situation, start from nothing and rebuild our lives wherever we can work and do whatever we can do."

The Acehnese are known for their resilience, having lived under what the majority consider occupational forces for hundreds of years, but the pain lingers beneath the surface of many survivors and can be triggered at any time.

Lena Farsiah, a 60-year-old grandmother from Banda Aceh who fortunately lost only one of her family members and survived physically unharmed, has succumbed to the emotional fallout.

Lying in a joint Australian-New Zealand military field hospital bed, the university lecturer could only tell The Jakarta Post that the "rain began to fall" before sobs ended her story.

Farsiah's son continued for her as she held the hand of a New Zealand medic, explaining that two weeks after the disaster his mother had been outdoors when the heavy rain sparked fears the downpour would cause another tsunami. She blacked out, collapsed and broke her wrist.

Medical experts from the hospital, "which can perform any procedure except for open heart surgery", admit they are powerless to aid the psychologically scared, despite having two psychologists on staff. They cannot relate culturally to the patients and working through interpreters is ineffective, a doctor said.

Yanti, a recent law graduate from a university in Banda Aceh, says she is focusing on the future, busying herself as a member of the IRD team working around the clock to bring relief to the more than 500,000 people believed to be internally displaced.

In addition to the immediate supply of food aid and other emergency supplies to Banda Aceh, an effort praised by U.S. President George W Bush, IRD, which set up operations in Jakarta in 1999, is implementing emergency contracts from the United States Agency for International Development to improve conditions in what are squalid IDP camps dotted in and around Aceh's capital; namely, grants for the procurement of emergency supplies and provision of emergency water and sanitation.

In Banda Aceh, IRD is actively working in three IDP camps but has identified a total of nine others in the capital and a growing number of others in more remote districts, and counting.

Yanti has been employed in the spectrum of IRD programs running in the camps, which include drainage, providing potable water, toilets, garbage disposal and collection, and cash-for- work programs to stimulate the local economy.

"It helps me cope, instead of sitting around doing nothing. I am now in a position to be able to get out and help others."

Sitting with relatives and other survivors from Lamno seeking shelter in the IRD compound, Yanti says she does not know what the future holds, but as the emergency situation eases and IRD look to more long-term programs to help Aceh rebuild she would like to complete her masters degree in law, though she will need a sponsor if she is to achieve her dream.

"Anybody who came here to help is an angel; what IRD is doing is really benefiting the people and we hope the program will continue to grow. Even though IRD might not always be here, this will help the Acehnese people start over again."