Aid still has not reached some Indonesians after the tsunami

by Orla Clinton
Ecumenical News International

NIAS, Indonesia — Almost a month after tidal waves engulfed shorelines across continents, people are still stranded in parts of Indonesia as emergency helpers battle to reach areas where bridges and roads were swept away and helicopters cannot land.

      International media attention has focused on flattened cities like Banda Aceh and Meulaboh on Sumatra island. These have seen an outpouring of global compassion and assistance has reached them. But on the west coast of Indonesia there are still people stranded despite efforts to reach them.

      The effect has been equally catastrophic on communities in remote areas like Sirombu on Nias island, a Christian pocket isolated from Indonesia in north Sumatra. Here the tsunami killed 119 people and displaced more than 4,000. It swept away five schools, five churches, two mosques, two health centers, 111 bridges, and more than 400 homes were destroyed.

      Ama Aspirasi Gulo sat amid the ruins of what was once his home in Sisarahili showing where his neighbors died. The area is accessible only by foot or motorbike three kilometers from Sirombu.

      “It was a peaceful life,” recounted the 40‑year‑old father of four, explaining how all the families had their own economic resources through coconut farming and selling. “We enjoyed life, even if we were far away from the city,” he said, showing the flattened homes of his neighbors who died.

      He explained how the earthquake shook their homes, but no one fled as they did not anticipate flooding. Then the waves rose and enveloped the whole village.

      “People were crying and shouting to God to come and help them. But God didn’t come — only more water,” lamented Ama. He knows 68 people who died, but luckily his family escaped by climbing coconut trees.

      Ama said he plans to rebuild his life away from the sea, away from where his forefathers had lived for generations. “I have finished with this place,” he said motioning to the ghost village that was his community.

      Hundreds of thousands of people now have radically changed lives. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates that 800 fishing canoes were destroyed on Nias. Most belonged to poor fishing and farming communities. They say their lives might as well have ended, as they have lost everything.

      Sirombu and Mandrehe are areas not known in many places and few outsiders visit. Aid workers say lives are a cycle of poverty and neglect where women die in childbirth, the majority of people are illiterate, and where malaria and other diseases kill.

      Surf Aid International, the only international medical organization operating on Nias and the Mentawai islands, said the area faces a serious risk of epidemics with malaria already prevalent, affecting 25 to 30 per cent of the population.

      “We need to get these whole communities under nets,” said Dave Jenkins, Surf Aid’s medical director, noting how malaria weakens the population through chest infections and malnutrition as well as directly killing people. Surf Aid is distributing mosquito nets, vaccinating against measles and supplying micro‑nutrients and vitamin A.

      Other humanitarian aid agencies working in the area include Yayasan Tanggul Benkana and YAKKUM Emergency Unit, both members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International — which includes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) — in Indonesia. They are working through the local Disaster Response Unit, a church‑based organization founded in February 2004 to respond to floods and landslides, which the island often experiences.

     Editor’s note:Contributions for tsunami relief through PDA may be sent through normal mission giving channels. Gifts by credit card can be made by calling PresbyTel at 800-872-3283 or online at www.pcusa.org/pda.Checks payable to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can also be mailed directly to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. — Jerry L. Van Marter