YAICI Provides Nutritious Food and Psychological Support to Flood-Affected Children in Aceh Tamiang

YAICI Provides Nutritious Food and Psychological Support to Children in Aceh Tamiang

• [Special Report]

Jakarta, VIVA – The government is currently working to facilitate recovery following the flash floods that occurred on 26 November 2025 in several regions of West Sumatra, North Sumatra, and Aceh.

However, these disaster survivors also desperately need nutritious food and drinks, as well as trauma counselling, to support the health of their children.

The Secretary-General of the Abhipraya Insan Cendekia Indonesia Foundation (YAICI), Satria Yudistira, said that he discovered this during a visit to communities that are still living in the areas affected by the disaster, such as Serba Village and Pematang Durian Village, in Aceh Tamiang Regency.

“The food available is generally more suitable for adults, and it often consists of processed foods that are not very healthy for children. Access to clean drinking water is also still very limited in both villages,” said Satria in a statement on Tuesday, 24 February 2026.

He said that the visit to the two disaster-affected areas in Aceh Tamiang was carried out out of concern for helping the community, especially children who have experienced trauma as a result of the severe disaster. YAICI believes that disaster situations not only create a humanitarian crisis but also have the potential to pose long-term risks to children’s health.

“As a foundation that focuses on children’s health and protection, we want our presence in these two villages to help the children here, especially by reducing the trauma they experienced after the disaster. We hope that the children here can return to their normal activities as they did before the disaster,” he said.

To that end, Satria said that during their stay in the two villages, YAICI conducted trauma counselling sessions for the children.

“We played several games with the children. We played games like word association and charades with them. We hope that by playing with the children in these two villages, they can forget what they have experienced or at least escape for a while,” said Satria.

He explained that the children in the two villages seemed very happy when invited to play. Some were even very happy when YAICI used doll toys in the games and asked to keep them.