Warm Turkish bread for the Acehnese

Warm Turkish bread for the Acehnese

Nani Afrida
The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

Muhammad smiled brightly, showing off a plastic bag with 10 warm
flat breads in his hand as if they were precious stones.

Every afternoon, the 45-year-old resident of Kuta Alam
district has a new routine -- queuing up in front of a Turkish
organization's office in Lhueng Bata, Banda Aceh to get a share
of the warm bread.

"I love its taste, especially when eaten with hot coffee," he
told The Jakarta Post.

The queue at the office starts at 4 p.m. and lasts until 6
p.m. every day. Everyone waiting in line, both grownups and
children, get the bread.

The 15-cm flat bread is the Istanbul Metropolitan
Municipality's unique way of assisting the Acehnese after the
quake-triggered tsunami rocked Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam on Dec.
26 last year.

Every day, 10,000 flat breads are prepared and handed out to
the tsunami refugees, orphans and residents.

The bread-making activity started on Jan. 28 this year, with
the machine brought directly from Turkey. At first, they were
using ingredients brought in from Turkey, but then replaced them
with local materials, like flour and sugar from Banda Aceh or
Medan.

"We usually make salty bread, but because the Acehnese like it
sweet, we add a little bit of sugar, said Syaref Aktaz, a member
of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

He said the bread was prepared because in Turkey, the bread is
a staple, just like rice is here, as well as to bring the Turkish
culture closer to the Acehnese.

The bread-making, he said, is conducted in an eight-by-four
square-meter room and involves 12 workers and two chefs. The 12
workers are local residents who were the tsunami victims, while
the chefs are Turkish.

"The 12 workers work here part time," Syaref said.

Apart from distributing warm bread every afternoon, the
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality also distributes hundreds of
flat breads to several shelters for displaced persons in Aceh
Besar and Banda Aceh where the free bread is a hot item among the
refugees.

"We can take as much as we like but only once a day," a
refugee in Nusa village, Lhok Nga district in Aceh Besar regency
told the Post.

The Turkish organization also provided a street-sweeping
machine as well as containers and a lawn mower.

Besides the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, six other
Turkish organizations -- including Deniz Fenery Aid and
Solidarity Association, International Brotherhood and Solidarity
Association (IBS), and Turkish Red Crescent Association -- are
assisting Aceh after the tsunami.

Deniz Fenery Aid and Solidarity and IBS have constructed 800
houses in Lamno. The houses for the tsunami victims are scheduled
to be officiated this April.

Syaref said that Turkey could understand the Acehnese people's
suffering, since it was struck by a massive earthquake in 1999
which claimed at least 20,000 lives.

"We can empathize with how the Acehnese feel, that's why we
try to help with all our hearts," he said.