For
tsunami survivors, returning to their own neighbourhood or village
means a return to a normal life. Since May, 51 families have
been living in houses built by the French Red Cross in Sigli,
Indonesia. A further 103 homes will be occupied between now
and November. The French Red Cross plans to have rehoused a
total of 317 families by the end of 2007.
“I thank the Lord for giving us another home,” says
Mrs Mariani, sitting on a bamboo bench on the porch of her new
house. She moved in five months ago with her twenty-two year
old son. Four members of her family were swept away by the tsunami.
“I am happy now. We lived for over a year in an IDP camp
built by the government a few kilometres from here,” she
tells us. “It wasn’t easy. The toilets were dirty,
the environment was dirty and it was very cramped and stiflingly
hot. Our new house is beautiful and clean.”
Next door, Rizal and his wife Pepi have tastefully furnished
their new home. “It was a great relief when we moved in,
as my wife was pregnant. She gave birth two months ago,”
explains Rizal, rocking the cradle where their baby daughter
Nufus sleeps. “I don’t work today; it is my turn
to look after her.” He made the furniture for their new
home himself: the coloured bookcase in the living room, the
kitchen fittings and the wardrobe in the bedroom. Outside, he
has put up a bamboo fence. “Like this, we have a garden,
and around the side, I am even growing some corn,” he
says.
After a year and a half of living from one day to the next,
the couple is now beginning to make plans for the future. “If
I had a little more money, I would like to raise chickens and
work for myself. For the moment, I am responsible for human
resources in a construction company, but I would rather be self-employed.
My wife is learning to sew and would like to become a dressmaker.”
The television is on all the time, even if nobody is watching
it. Pepi is ironing, as Rizal’s sister has come to visit
and taken the opportunity to do her laundry. Life is back to
normal.
Benteng and Blang Paseh, the two districts where the French
Red Cross has committed to rebuilding homes, now look like residential
neighbourhoods. “It is not as busy as it used to be,”
says Mrs Nurleni, one of the most senior members of the community.
“Many of our neighbours are dead, but it is good to be
back.”
Mrs Nurleni lives with her two daughters and their families
– eight people in all living together in a 56 m2 house.
“The house that we had before was much bigger, but there
were more of us,” she explains. “Some of my children
have left to live elsewhere, and my husband and one of my daughters
were killed in the tsunami. We are happy to have a roof over
our heads.”
“Here we have a real life and we have our own room; it’s
nothing like the camps,” adds her daughter, Hernita, who
is preparing a meal for the family. Like many of the people
of Aceh, the family has made the house bigger with an extension
on the back wall serving as a kitchen. “In Aceh, the kitchen
is often a rudimentary wooden room separate from the house,
so that the living area and bedrooms are not filled with smoke
and smells,” explains Xavier Chanraud, the French Red
Cross reconstruction delegate. “This room is not part
of the living space; it is just used to prepare food. It normally
deteriorates quickly and is rebuilt every three or four years.”
Building faster and better
The second phase of 103 houses will soon be completed. “We
are always in search of technical improvements,” explains
Xavier. “The Acehnese use corrugated iron for their roofs,
which rusts quickly, has a greenhouse effect and provides no
soundproofing. We have discovered a new material, bitumen-coated
cellulose, which provides a very satisfactory degree of thermal
insulation and soundproofing and does not rust.”
The French Red Cross is studying the possibility of implementing
the third phase of construction directly, without contracting
out to a construction company. “We will buy the materials
necessary for each house and give the beneficiary the sum required
to employ the workers necessary to complete each stage of the
construction,” continues Xavier. “It is possible
to do this because the house design is relatively simple and
people in Aceh have the necessary know-how. We hope to reduce
construction costs by around 30%, complete the houses sooner
and not have to worry about contractors, who are not always
easy to deal with.”
Since 2005, the French Red Cross in Sigli has been involved
in numerous construction programmes. Two schools and 12 health
care centres have been built or rehabilitated. The programme
to reconstruct 317 houses will continue to the end of 2007,
and work will begin on rehabilitating five schools in November.
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A
man stands in front of his home in Sigli, where 51 families
are living in new houses built by the French Red Cross.
A further 103 homes will be completed by the end of 2006.
In all the French Red Cross plans to have rehoused a total
of 317 families by the end of 2007. (p14895)
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After
a year and a half of living from one day to the next,
Rizal and his wife Pepi are now beginning to make plans
for the future. “It was a great relief when we moved
in, as my wife was pregnant. She gave birth two months
ago.” (p14896)
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Bentang
and Blang Paseh, the two districts where the French Red
Cross has committed to rebuilding homes, are now beginning
to look like normal, residental neighbourhoods. "It
is not as busy as it used to be," says resident Mrs
Nurleni, "But it is good to be back." (p14897)
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