Gotta' start Somewhere
working with
communities to develop our response
Agro-forestry
The agro-forestry unit was one of our first
units. We initially focused our efforts on helping 3 communities
replace some of the fruit trees that were destroyed in the
tsunami. Fruit production was an important part of the economy
in these communities and replacing the trees will give the
people some long-term income. We are also giving some
instruction in the care of the trees, pest control, and propagation of the trees so that they can increase the income
from their orchards.
Livelihoods
This is a new unit that is starting as a small
pilot project, loaning female goats to widows in the nearby community of
Sango. This community was not directly affected by the tsunami,
but it has long been greatly affected by the military conflict. We plan to eventually
expand this unit to include other projects that will help many
people here improve their ability to provide for their families.
Education
The education unit was also one of our first
units. This unit has been working with several of the schools
in the Lamno area by providing mobile libraries for the
schools. They are also training the teachers so that they can
make better use of the books and teach more effectively. We are
looking into ways to help the teachers and schools overcome
financial difficulties. In the future, we plan to work with the
teachers to help them better understand a new curriculum that
was recently introduced by the government. The future of Aceh
lies in their children and so we see the education unit as an
important part of the long-term development of Aceh.
Participatory
Video
Video has been
shown to be a terrific tool
when it is used to give a voice to non-literate peoples. In many
countries, the camera has proved to be far more effective than
the written word in capturing a message at the heart of local
communities. Obviously the people of Aceh have many many stories
to share.
Initially, time will be spent familiarizing
community members with basic camera skills and picture
composition. They will then be encouraged to collect stories and
recollections from their friends family and neighbours. One of
our expatriate staff has experience in film-making and he will work
alongside local people to hone this material into a film which
can be presented to the Acehnese people.
We can only begin to imagine the power that such
a film might have
– combining stories from the long
conflict with the devastation of the tsunami. Giving people an
opportunity to tell their stories in their own words has been
shown to contribute to healing from trauma and for those unable
to voice their experience hearing from others might help them
come to terms with their own loss.
Health
Still in the planning stages, we expect to learn
from the experience of community health training in Tasikmalaya,
and then work with local health workers to design a programme that
makes sense here. We will also use the
CD of health songs that
YPB has just produced.
We hosted a team of psychologists from Canada at
the beginning of January who were able to deliver some training
in trauma counseling. Several local and expatriate staff from SNL
and another NGO were trained and actually did some counseling
with local people who have been traumatised by the tsunami and
the conflict. We have plans to expand the health unit to
include working with women's groups and groups of pregnant women
and new mothers.
