Joy Surpasses Grief in Tsunami's Wake

“Many leaders in Blang Mee are still asking how they can get past the grief of seeing their whole community literally washed away,” said Andrew Ryskamp, director of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, concerning a community in Aceh, Indonesia.

More than 60 percent of the people of this area were killed when the devastating tsunami hit in December 2004.  Those that survived lost nearly everything.  Their homes, their boats, their farm tools, and their treasured possessions were all washed away.  Yet, out of this despair has risen many signs of hope.

Last month, the people of Blang Mee held a celebration ceremony to commemorate the progress that has been made in the two years since the disaster.  Ryskamp was present for the festivities along with other CRWRC staff members Karl Westerhof, Nick Armstrong, and Grace Wiebe.

“Together, we looked at the signs of hope,” Ryskamp said, “525 new homes, children again playing in the streets, strong new community leadership, new marriages, renewed livelihoods, and laughter.”

This progress is due, in part, to the efforts of CRWRC in the Blang Mee community.  CRWRC worked in Blang Mee through its affiliate organization, GenAssist, which is made up of more than 30 Muslim and Christian Indonesians who together rekindled hope by helping community members work together to rebuild their lives. 

At first, this included building 680 temporary shelters for the many families who were now homeless.  GenAssist was careful to include community members in each step of the process, and also required that Christians and Muslims work together.

Mona Saroinsong leads the GenAssist Team. “She was one of the nominees for the 1,000 Women for Peace Nobel Prize 2005 nomination,” Ryskamp said. “She used her peace networks to get into the community networks. As a result, contacts between Muslims and Christians are now frequent and open.”

The next step in the process was to rebuild homes and livelihoods.  To date, 525 permanent homes have been completed, hundreds of hectares of land have been restored for agricultural use, and new boats and farm tools have been distributed so that families can start earning an income again.

“Today, farming and fishing are thriving in the community,” said Karl Westerhof of the work he saw in the community.

In fact, because of the success of CRWRC’s and GenAssist’s programs, other organizations are choosing to funnel part of their tsunami donations to CRWRC so that additional work can be done. 

To the people of Blang Mee, the success of these programs is much more personal than organizational recognition. At the January event, mothers, pleased to finally have a home for their children, were eager to tell others that new babies had been born since the disaster.  Fathers, proud of all that their community had accomplished, put up a plaque to commemorate the work of the past two years.  And children, able at last to be kids without the burden of disaster all around them, danced and sang to their hearts delight. 

This, most of all, was a sign that the grief and despair that the tsunami brought to Blang Mee can now be a thing of the past.