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Neighbours become new family for survivors |
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With
families decimated by the onslaught of waves that killed
almost 115,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province,
neighbourly relationships are quickly replacing blood ties
as survivors turn to friends for support and care.
"I am now entirely alone, I have no family left," said Andi
Firmansyah, who lost his siblings, parents, wife and
eight-year-old son in the December 26 disaster.
Like many survivors, Firmansyah found himself in a displaced
persons' camp shortly after the tsunamis swept away his
fishermen's hamlet of Tenggiri in Ule Lhee village on Aceh's
coast, just north of the capital of Banda Aceh.
"But there was no one I could turn to, no one I can share my
grief with," he said. Firmansyah eventually met with several
of his neighbours there and began to search the large camps
for others. They found 174 people, out of the hamlet's
population of 629.
They were allowed to use an empty plot of land not far from
the main camp in Mata'ie a few kilometres (miles) southwest
of Banda Aceh and managed to acquire a large tent, but not
large enough to accommodate everyone.
"The children, the elderly and the sick were sent to
the homes of their relatives elsewhere and there is now only
35 of us here," said Wawan, a fisherman who has been appointed as the head of the
group.
"We are here together and that is now my family," said Wawan,
42, who also lost his entire family in the disaster.
The former motorized fishing boat owner also lost his
vessel, which was carried by the waves to a bridge
kilometres away. Only two of his four-man crew survived.
Other similar groupings based on neighbourhood or village
affinities have formed in the displaced persons' camps.
Wawan said that groups had come together for two of the
three other hamlets of Ule Lhee - Bawal and Kakap.
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Tongkol, the fourth hamlet, was, unlike the three others,
predominantly populated by migrants from other regions of
Aceh - a mixed community that offered less cohesion. "We are spread in several locations. A few of us are here,"
said Ali Ibrahim, formerly of Tongkol. He now shares a tent
with several other homeless from the same subdistrict but
different villages.
In the muddy main camp of Mata'ie, Bustaman heads a group of
80 people grouped together. All are from Lamjabat, a village
close to Ule Lhee.
Bustaman, a village elder who has been appointed by the
group as their leader, said the presence of familiar faces
helped alleviate the grief and suffering they were all going
through.
"We are always reminded that we are not alone, that other
people we know share the same fate," Bustaman said.
Firmansyah said that a further incentive to remain as a
group based on a neighbourhood was that the authorities were
only doling out relief to units of people, not to
individuals.
However many of these groups were formed before they knew
about the regulations. Hasballah Saad, a native Acehnese and
former Indonesian government human rights minister, said
close ties had traditionally existed between neighbours in
Aceh and he was not surprised they were supporting each
other.
"In times like this, the 'Seudara Linka' (neighbourly ties)
have become a bond stronger than blood ties," Saad, speaking
from Jakarta, told AFP by telephone. "And for many
survivors, neighbours have now replaced their lost family
members as a source of support and care."
Leilah, a fish seller in her early 30s, lost her only two
children and an adolescent adopted boy in the tsunamis.
"These are the faces that I have known for a long time,"
Leilah, who is staying in the same group as Firmansyah and
Wawan, said when asked why she did not seek shelter with her
relatives inland.
"We are a family, sharing the same fate and bearing the same
burden." |
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