Aceh's next generation
(Page 4 of 4)
At the grave site, Fayath just stayed quiet, but Ira says he understands. He knows his cousin Pipi, a playmate before the tsunami, is dead. But he can't bear to look at photos of the family. If he does, Ira says, he becomes silent for the day.
To heal these wounds, the family has turned less to foreign aid groups and relied instead on their traditional religious beliefs. Islam has been a source of solace to many Acehnese searching for a way to deal with the upheaval in their lives.
"We just tell ourselves that anything good or bad in life comes from Allah," says Ira. "This is our life, but we can't control it. This helps us deal with it."
When the Monitor first met these two families, earlier this year, they seemed like ideal subjects to help answer the question: Does aid money do any lasting good?
For the two families, the aid efforts did provide small, scattered stepping stones on their own unique paths to a more solid footing. But both have found that the swiftest changes in their lives generally come from their own initiatives and talents.
Feri's parents, Alamsyah and Juriah, who chose out of pragmatism rather than ideology to go it alone, managed to escape from a crowded relief camp by building their own home from scraps. Rather than wait for job retraining programs, Alamsyah used his carpentry skills to make money building homes for other people and a small coffee stall of his own.
Alamsyah and Juriah are still struggling to make ends meet in the same makeshift home. But aid money is starting to make a difference in their lives. Alamsyah took out a no-interest loan for a motorcycle. His oldest surviving son, Feri, now goes to a school donated by Coca-Cola; his family receives food and medical care from the UN; and the fish market is being rebuilt by Americares. Most important, Alamsyah plans to take up an offer by CARE to finish constructing homes for anyone in the neighborhood who wants one, and who has land title.
By contrast, the family of Muammar and Ira typified the majority of people who stand in line, wait their turn, and hope that aid will help them get back on track. Their strategy paid off faster than expected. By April, they occupied a home built by the International Organization for Migration.
Jobs programs were much slower in coming, and the Monitor's second part of the series explained how Muammar spent much of his time visiting aid groups and government institutions seeking aid, while Alamsyah was earning money as a carpenter, taxi driver, and coffee vendor. Today, Muammar's condition has improved dramatically, only partially with foreign aid. He has gotten his old job back at the local TV station, but continues to receive food aid. His kids stay at home, lacking a preschool, but they receive adequate medical checkups.
In this, the final part of the series, the differences between the families have largely disappeared. Both are grateful for the aid that has come, but frustrated that it hasn't come faster. Both families recognize they are fortunate to also draw upon middle-class resources, education, and talents that others lack.
"CARE will build the homes over here, but it's too slow," says Alamsyah. "Here they have no building materials.... If I had the materials, I would do it much faster."
