'I'm Alive!' project continues through dailies

'I'm Alive!' project continues through dailies

Ati Nurbaiti
The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

A romantic picture in a recent edition of the Serambi daily here
is of a young couple. A beautiful lady, her hair done up in a bun
and wearing a pretty, sleeveless dress is embracing a man in a
dapper suit, who poses confidently for the camera. But the
photograph is not for a wedding announcement. Above the picture
of the couple is one of a little girl, her name is Vei Ren.

Someone must have placed an ad for her in the missing persons
pages; the ad says she is looking for her mother, Suicen, and
father, Hendra -- the couple in the picture.

Like the other ads, one sentence indicates where the couple
were on the morning of Dec. 26, plus a contact number. They were
in Keudah, one of the areas devastated by the tidal waves.

Ads like this are regularly found, more than three months
after tsunamis engulfed this town, leaving over 230,000 dead or
missing across Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra.

Thousands have stopped searching for their loved ones, finding
some solace through the several mass prayer gatherings held since
the 100-day commemoration of the tragedy, on April 4, the most
recent held in a number of areas here, as well as the
Baiturrahman Mosque on Sunday.

There are also survivors who are reunited with their family
members after months of separation. In the weeks following the
disaster, the Jakarta-based Metro TV invited people to view
footage of tsunami survivors on the off-chance that one of their
family members or friends was captured on camera alive.

On Sunday and Monday thousands of names were published under
the "I'm alive!" project run by the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), in
cooperation with the Jakarta-based Kompas daily and Banda Aceh-
based Serambi Indonesia. The ICRC plans to distribute copies of
the supplement in strategic spots, such as markets,
transportation terminals and displaced persons camps across town
and in other areas; though the head of the ICRC's Aceh office
Amelia Husagic, thinks that to achieve the best results the
copies would need to be posted absolutely everywhere, although
this is, of course, an impossibility.

The directory, the latest form of the "I'm alive!" project
that began in January, lists the names of missing persons in
alphabetical order, old and new addresses and year of birth,
aside from the names of their father and mother, based on data
gathered by or reported to Red Cross staff across the province.

The list can also be accessed at the ICRC and PMI offices and
in the website www.familylinks.icrc.org., as well as through
hotlines such as, 08001403040.

The ICRC here is credited with having managed to reunite 3,044
families since the tsunami through its provision of free
satellite phone services or assisting survivors to call
relatives, among other means. The reunions of a few thousand
others were facilitated by other organizations. For the Red
Cross, restoring severed family links is part of its work in
other countries, mainly those torn by conflict.

Husagic recalls her involvement in such work in countries like
Myanmar, Ethiopia and Kosovo apart from Bosnia, her home country.

"If people have to leave their homes, regardless of whether
it's because of a natural disaster or other reasons, the needs
are quite similar," she said.

Among other issues, the ICRC is particularly concerned about
the welfare of unaccompanied minors. This refers to children
under 18 who were separated from their families in the disaster,
where the ICRC and the PMI work with government bodies and other
international organizations like Save the Children and World
Vision, apart from local organizations like Muhammadiyah.

So far, from 39 unaccompanied minors, "28 have been reunited
with their families," says Husagic.

With thousands missing, success stories are minuscule in
number. But each and every name recorded, matched and finally
linked up with their families is a source of joy for Husagic and
her staff in Aceh.

It's just "very emotional," Husagic says.