Land reclaimed, thousands of homes reconstructed and livelihoods restored - three years after one of the world’s worst natural disasters, communities continue to recover and rebuild.
UK Christian relief and development agency, Tearfund, has been operational in Indonesia and working with over 20 of its partner agencies in five affected countries - helping over 800,000 people affected by the tsunami.
The majority have been survivors in some of South Asia’s poorest communities. Livelihood restoration has been critical to get people back on their feet, whether that is providing boats and nets for fishing communities in south east India or chilli farming on Sumatra’s western coast.
Tearfund relief and reconstruction programmes overcame monumental tasks in the weeks and months after the 2004 tsunami killed some 300,000 people. Thousands more were made homeless – half a million people in Sri Lanka alone. In the Indonesian province of Aceh over 40 per cent of people lost their livelihoods.
When the tsunami smashed into Cot Darat, a village at sea level three miles from Indonesia’s coastline, vast areas of arable farmland, wells and groundwater suffered salt contamination.
The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimated that 70 per cent of Aceh’s west coast farmland was affected with 20 per cent permanently damaged. The economy, heavily dependent on agriculture, was devastated with some 160,000 people losing their livelihoods.
Farmers that previously grew red chilli pepper were forced to give up farming and find alterative livelihoods. However, despite discouraging prospects for recovery in the area some were convinced that the land retained farming potential.
Ahmad Sahir, an Agricultural Project Officer for Tearfund’s recovery programme in Aceh has a background in organic agriculture. His vision was to see farmland regenerated and lives rehabilitated.
“The land is a like a person,” he said. “You simply need to know what it needs and then you can find a solution for nearly every possible problem.” Ahmad’s plan was to rehabilitate tsunami damaged lands using organic methods – proper tilling of the soil and organic fertilizers and pesticides.
A women’s group in the village were first to try organic techniques to rehabilitate their land to grow vegetables. They needed to be convinced that organic pesticides made from onion, ginger and papaya didn’t also contain chemicals.
