Villagers gather to map out a new-and-improved community.

Mercy Corps has been operating in Aceh Province since December 28, 2004 and is currently supporting community recovery and development, livelihoods rehabilitation and development, microfinance and small business lending, and the social recovery of communities.

One facet of Mercy Corps' programs focuses upon community development as the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami on December 26 th , 2004 had a devastating effect on communities throughout Aceh. Not only was there a high toll on human life, with an estimated 127,000 dead and 93,638 people lost, but the physical damage communities sustained was also considerable. Over 250,000 houses were totally or partially damaged; 72% of roads in Aceh were damaged, impacting accessibility and most aspects of daily life. Community infrastructure such as drinking water supplies, facilities for handling wastewater, garbage disposal, drainage, schools, clinics, meeting halls and mosques, were damaged to varying degrees, some up to 90%. Faced with this extent of destruction, reconstruction efforts will take time and need to be clearly focused to meet communities' most immediate needs.

Mercy Corps' strategy is driven by the philosophy that reconstruction and relief efforts should respond to real needs as identified by individuals and communities.

Mercy Corps' strategy is driven by the philosophy that reconstruction and relief efforts should respond to real needs as identified by individuals and communities. We empower the people in affected communities to manage resources and take on ownership of the decision-making process: past disaster response experiences and the resilient nature of Acehnese society suggest that the most effective way to address the enormity of the situation is by supporting localized answers. We emphasize working with people's own motivations and knowledge, and encourage communities to take the lead in their recovery.

Mercy Corps is currently working with a total of 70 returning communities in Aceh; 40 in the district of Aceh Besar with the capital city Banda Aceh and 30 in the district of Aceh Barat with the town of Meulaboh.

Mapping the Future

One particular community development program is currently underway in Lam Asan Klieng, Indonesia.

When the Indian Ocean tsunami rushed ashore here in December 2004, all but four residents of this tiny coastal village escaped its fury by fleeing into the surrounding hills. When the water receded, it revealed a scene of utter devastation. Sixty-one of the village's 86 homes were destroyed, along with most of the roads, the village office and its mosque.

Fifteen months later, most residents here still live in barracks provided as temporary housing by the Indonesian government. Their household wells have been cleaned but the water is now only good for washing, so they rely on tanker trucks to provide drinking water. Life has not returned to normal, but together with Mercy Corps and a respected spatial-planning firm, the people of Lam Asan Klieng are drawing up plans to restore their village and make it better than it was before.

Dozens of Lam Asan Klieng residents are helping craft a 10-year development plan that lays out the physical contours of the village, locates essential services like schools, health centers and roads, and adheres to the government's stricter post-tsunami development regulations. The village is one of five along the hard-hit coastline of Aceh Province taking part in a Mercy Corps pilot project that helps residents design "spatial plans" — essentially land-use plans that emphasize how the uses interact with one other and the natural environment — to reconstruct their communities.

In December 2004 the tsunami destroyed 61 of the village's 86 homes, along with most of the roads, the village office and its mosque.

As a result, the people of Lam Asan Klieng have enthusiastically begun a wide-ranging discussion on how to reshape their village to better meet the needs of its residents. Guided by professional planners and Mercy Corps staff, residents already have laid out a road-building plan that better connects them to neighboring villages, discussed possibilities for an Internet-equipped library and brainstormed strategies to improve community health by holding nutrition and breastfeeding classes for women.

"The village committees meet almost every day," says Pak Win Asri, a member of the infrastructure committee, one of seven working on various aspects of the long-term plan. His group is helping devise plans for a piped water system to replace the network of household wells destroyed by the tsunami. "We meet at the coffee shop, or at the community centre, or after praying. We meet and sit together and plan the future of our village."

The project got underway last December when Mercy Corps selected five small, devastated coastal communities — Bitai, Cadek, Kling Cot Arun, Lampisang and Lam Asan Klieng — and enlisted the help of Indonesian spatial-planning firm PT Wastuwidyawan, known as PTWas.

PTWas helped craft the new post-tsunami construction guidelines for Acehenese villages, and, along with the Indonesian Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (BRR), developed the reconstruction plan for the 260,000-person province capital, Banda Aceh. Mercy Corps is one of the first NGOs in Aceh to adopt and pilot the new reconstruction guidelines.

The agency's responsibility is to encourage participation among all community sectors in the planning exercises, and, together with PTWas professionals, to lend staff support to the committees that tackle the bulk of the planning work.

Residents have laid out a road-building plan that better connects them to neighboring villages, discussed possibilities for an Internet-equipped library and brainstormed strategies to improve community health.

Also supporting the project are analysts in Mercy Corps' geographic information systems (GIS) office in Aceh. They generate the detailed maps that are used as the basis for discussions.

PTWas planners provide technical analysis and draw up final engineering and architectural plans. Ariawan Adikara of PTWas says in contrast to typically top-down town-planning exercises, these are "highly participatory" sessions.

"We are continuously sharing information with the village and taking the needs the community articulates into account," Adikara says. "The mobilization of the villages through Mercy Corps means that the communities develop a clear understanding of their needs. They also learn how to organize themselves to address these needs."

This sense of empowerment is plainly evident in conversations with Lam Asan Klieng residents.

"We are working with Mercy Corps to find out where we will have the new houses and new roads," says Pak Fachrul Rizal, a member of the mapping committee. "Housing will be organized and structured for each family, so there will not be three households on one piece of land anymore. Another change will be that we didn't have many roads in our village before — now we will have a clear escape road and a better connection to villages around us. Access to houses in the village will be better, too."

Pak Dahlan, a resident member of the livelihoods committee, explained that his group had started its work by collecting pre- and post-tsunami job data. "Now we find out what obstacles there are for livelihoods today and try to address them," he says. For instance, they're trying to find suitable land and capital for a local brick maker who wants to resurrect his pre-tsunami enterprise.

Residents will come away with a renewed sense of community — a community that is well-organized, cognizant of its needs and equipped with tools to address them.

Other committee members expressed similar hopes and aspirations, underscoring the fact that a detailed spatial plan won't be the only result of this village planning process. Residents will also come away with a renewed sense of community — a community that is well-organized, cognizant of its needs and equipped with tools to address them.

In short, these communities are now empowered to shape their own futures long after Mercy Corps leaves the scene.

"It is good to think about what will happen in the next 10 years with our community," says resident Ibu Mariani. She, like her neighbors, knows that the future of her village depends on it.




Contributed by Shirine Bakhat and Lizzie Christy, Mercy Corps.

To read another Global Envision article about tsunami recovery, see Time To Cancel Tsunami Countries' Debt.



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