IOM builds shelters, employs Acehnese

JAKARTA: An estimated 4,500 Acehnese are being employed in the construction of shelters being built by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in tsunami-wrecked Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

The figure is expected to rise, the ION said on Tuesday, as the organization's locally-owned private sector partners are set to extend their working hours to build homes from dawn to dusk.

Employing local people has proven to be one of the quickest ways in disaster-struck areas to give them funds to restart their lives.

The IOM is building 11,000 transitional shelters in the province, and expects to also provide 107 homes to families who lost their houses in the disaster that claimed at least 128,000 lives and left over half a million homeless. --JP