PC(USA) - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance - Current Response - Asia - Situation Report Update - Indonesia - Mission Minute by Rebecca Young

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)


Mission Minute - Indonesia Nurhiana's Story January 13, 2006		Give now! #DR000167


Nurhiana is a young woman with three small children living in the village of Lhok Me, about 20 miles north of the city of Banda Aceh. She and her husband are living in a one-room tent erected on a platform. Nurhiana’s family is lucky to be shaded from the tropical heat — they found a level place to put their tent platform just below a leafy tree with widespread branches. Her husband	Nurhiana and one of her children. Photo: Rebecca Young, PDA
erected a sitting area under the tree, and Nurhiana laid out the mat for us when we came to visit the 22-family IDP camp where she now lives. Before the tsunami, they lived by the beach not more that 1000 yards downhill from their present site. After the tsunami destroyed their homes, they moved to a hillside further inland, but there was no water source.

YEU staff came to visit the village and asked what they needed most. The unanimous answer was, "Water," so YEU found a place to drill a well for them. The villagers moved once again to be closer to the well. In the photograph, the orange tank that holds the well water is visible on the ridge of a hill beside the village. YEU is also helping the villagers build houses on the new site, providing the materials and training for the people	The village families moved to be closer to the well, the oranged object pictured here on the hill. The villagers named water as their greatest need. Photo: Rebecca Young
to do the construction in the way they want. For their income generation project, some have started growing chili peppers with seeds from YEU. Thanks to the fertile soil, the crop will mature in just three to five months and will bring about $2,000 in income to the family at harvest time in three to five months. “I get dizzy just thinking about it,” says Nurhiana, laughing, considering the fact that the average income in Indonesia is $700 a year.


This report was written by the Rev. Rebecca Young, Liaison for Tsunami Recovery.

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