With help from LWR and its partners, Armaida and her two youngest children will soon be reunited with her three oldest daughters in another city.

Date: March 17, 2005

A LONG WAY FROM HOME. A LONGER ROAD BACK.

Armaida is a long way from what used to be her home. Forced from the home she shared with her five children in Banda Aceh, she saw the waves coming and retreated to a nearby Mosque that had a tower. Her plan to survive the killer wave succeeded, but her travails were just beginning.

Armaida and her children instinctively thought to go to her mother's house close by, which survived the high waters. They realized, even before they arrived, that this would be a short-term solution, for her mother's house was far too small. The family was instructed by the Aceh provincial government to go to an out-of-use Social Services compound in Medan , many miles away. Armaida and her two youngest children boarded government planes for the only refuge being offered to them. Her three oldest daughters, she decided, would stay on in Aceh and continue their schooling, as it was one of the structures in their lives that was still standing.

Grateful for the little she receives to help her through this tenuous time, Armaida makes it go a long way. From a meager stipend she receives to buy kerosene for cooking, she buys but a fraction, sending the rest of the money to her daughters in Aceh to rent a room there near their school. The food the government promised them for moving there is apparently limited. The government is now telling them to move back into cramped relatives' quarters, as they cannot afford to feed them anymore.

Lutheran World Relief, LWR, working through Indonesian partners, is negotiating with governments on Armaida's and others' behalves to continue the food supply while short- and long-term shelters are being proposed, accepted and built. "It's a long, tedious process, unfortunately," comments Barbara Wetsig, LWR Associate Manger for Asia and the Middle East , and LWR's Tsunami Relief Manager. "These families are caught in a no-man's land, with limited government assistance, and the lack of even temporary shelters, due to the involved process of getting them approved and built," she adds.

Further complicating matters is the immense scope of the destruction, particularly in Aceh, adds Wetsig, who recently toured hard-hit areas there. "All of the news footage and photographs in the world can't come close to capturing the complete and utter devastation you witness the instant you step onto these concrete-strewn streets. In places, everything is simply gone." That makes for along, long road ahead. One that LWR is committed to, "for however long it takes," adds Wetsig. And for that, people like Armaida can find at least a little comfort.

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