Yemen gives new life to Aceh school

Yemen gives new life to Aceh school

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was a proud day. Fatima, 14, and her friends had withstood the parching heat of the mid-morning sun for almost two hours. Then, adults joined the gathering at the school gate -- their headmistress and their teachers. Fatima began to wave a small red-and-white-flag as the motorcade approached.

This was the scene last Thursday at State Junior High School 6 (SMPN 6) in Aceh Besar near Banda Aceh, the province worst-hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and ensuing tsunamis. The catastrophe claimed over 236,000 lives (including 112,000 missing), left 400,000 people homeless and orphaned tens of thousands of Acehnese children.

Fatima, who lost her entire family -- both parents and two sisters -- in the disaster, is one of 200 orphans among the school's 700 students.

"Before the disaster, the school had 900 students and 60 teachers. Now, we have only 700 students and 48 teachers," headmistress Nurhayati told The Jakarta Post.

The guests were Yemen's Ambassador to Indonesia Ahmed Salem Saleh Al-Wahishi, and prominent Yemenese businessmen, including Hayel Saeed Anam business group's chairman Ali Mohamed Saeed, vice chairman Ahmed Hayel Saeed, Kuala Lumpur-based Pacific Inter-Link SDN BHD managing director Fouad Hayeel Saeed and Jakarta-based PT Pacific Indomas managing director Salah Ahmed Hayel Saeed.

A group of journalists from Jakarta and Medan were also present at the school that day.

Nurhayati said there had been virtually no hope of school resuming after the catastrophe as most of the classrooms had been destroyed. But Yemen gave new life to the school.

"We are thankful to the government and the people of Yemen, who financed the cleaning up and renovation of the school. They even furnished it. Thanks to them, the school is now running as normal," Nurhayati said.

Renovating the SMPN 6 building was not the only project that was undertaken by Yemen, which has a population of 20 million.

"We also renovated mosques like Al-Badar, which is next to the school building. We resurrected Zainoel Abidin General Hospital's rehabilitation ward. We arranged a bulldozer, exfolder, 16 dumping trucks and two water purification centers," Ambassador Ahmed, who was one of the first foreign diplomats to visit Aceh after the tsunami tragedy, told the Post in Banda Aceh last week.

Despite his business engagements, Yemen's conglomerate Ali Mohamed -- who has business operations in more than half a dozen countries -- came all the way to Aceh to see for himself the scale of destruction.

Ali Mohamed, whose group specializes in food products and employs 23,000 people worldwide, said his country is planning to build a center for orphans, community college and around 1,500 houses in Aceh. But he declined to specify how much money he and his friends would contribute.

"We will fund all our projects in Aceh. The scale of destruction is far greater than what we observed on television," he said after visiting some of the worst-affected places in Banda Aceh.

Ahmed -- who speaks fluent Arabic, English and Czech -- provided an indication of Yemen's total contribution to Aceh.

"Immediately after the tsunami, our President Ali Abdallah Salih established a national committee, consisting of government officials and the public, to raise funds for tsunami victims in Indonesia. Yemen is planning to raise a total of US$10 million for Aceh's relief operations and reconstruction," Ahmed, a career-diplomat who has a PhD degree in Economics, said.

One Yemen company in particular won kudos from the Acehnese people and the Indonesian government, Ahmed -- who has visited Aceh four times since the catastrophe -- said.

The company is none other than Pacific Inter-link, which has operations in Medan.

"When the disaster struck, Pacific Inter-link sent eight of its employees to Banda Aceh to coordinate the company's relief efforts. All the employees are still working in Aceh, even after two months," Pacific Inter-link's field coordinator Joko said.

Ahmed said Yemen employed around 400 Acehnese to work in its projects, which have included the evacuation of dead bodies and the clearing away of rubble.

An Acehnese man working for Pacific Inter-link -- who requested anonymity -- said he is being paid Rp 50,000 per day for "volunteer" work.

"So far, we have evacuated more than 5,000 bodies and buried them. Our heavy equipment is being used to clear the rubble on the way to Meulaboh, the worst-hit remote place in Aceh," Fouad, who is also the coordinator of his company's relief operations in Aceh, said.