Tsunami victims back on track with 'emping' production

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Pidie

When the tsunami swept across Aceh over three months ago, the disaster claimed over a hundred thousand lives and devastated the provincial economy.

One of the areas of economic activity that suffered was the production of emping, fried crackers made of melinjo fruit that is often eaten with soto (clear soup) or fried rice.

The tsunami put a halt to emping production in Pidie regency, some 110 kilometers of the provincial capital Banda Aceh and a center of the emping industry.

Among the worst affected areas was the small village of Cot Jaja in Simpang Tiga Pidie district, some 20 kilometers from Sigli. Most of the men in the village worked as fishermen, while the women earned money making emping.

"We usually produced two to three kilograms of crackers a day," said Aminah, a 23-year-old resident of Cot Jaja.

For each kilogram of crackers, workers were paid Rp 1,250 (about 13 US cents).

Acehnese women play an important role in the crackers' production and marketing, and Aminah has been making the crackers since she was young.

A lack of money to buy melinjo, however, meant that Aminah was unable to produce her own crackers, but was always working for other people.

The Acehnese version of emping is a little different from what is found in Java, where the fruit is boiled and then pounded and fried. In Aceh, the fruit is half fried without oil and then pounded, which is thought to help preserve the original taste of the fruit.

More than three months since the tsunami and half of the village's 184 families are still living in a nearby mosque, pondering their future.

"We would like to go back fishing in the sea, but the boats are gone. We wanted to get back to work producing crackers, but the equipment was swept away by the tsunami," Aminah said.

The pleas of the villagers were heard by the French Red Cross, Roix Rouge Francaise. The organization, which is more often concerned with providing clean water for tsunami survivors, came to the rescue of the village's economy.

"It was not easy, but we managed to conduct a survey over a period of time," Tanguy Abittan, the organization's information coordinator, told The Jakarta Post in Sigli.

After conducing the survey, the group donated cracker-making equipment for 110 women in Cot Jaja village.

Aminah said the organization not only donated equipment, but also 15 kilograms of melinjo fruit to each of the women, allowing them to make their own crackers.

"They were really helpful. Now we can produce our own crackers, so we no longer have to work for other people. And we can sell the crackers ourselves," smiled Aminah.

The women can make a kilogram of emping from 1.5 kilograms of melinjo fruit. A kilogram of the crackers sells for about Rp 20,000, which means more income for the women.

"We not only want the residents to be independent, but we also want Pidie to remain a center of emping production," Tanguy said.