July 7th - Calang

This pas week has been really exiting.

To start off with, I spent a fantastic weekend with three colleagues and someone from Oxfam in Sabang, a picturesque island not far off the coast from Banda Aceh (picture). The island also marks the beginning of Indonesia. Sabang is a popular weekend getaway, especially among westerners. This is mainly because the island’s green hills, fine white sand and emerald green water make it breathtakingly beautiful. Importantly, however, the locals are also considerably more liberal: you can get in the water wearing swimming shorts or a bikini and you can enjoy a nice cold beer on the beach! In addition there are gorgeous dive sites.

On Tuesday morning I left to Calang, on the west coast of Aceh Jaya sub-district, where the IRC has one of its four field offices. It is a five hour drive from the main office in Banda Aceh. Calang and the surrounding areas have been particularly hard-hit by the Tsunami. Many regions here have been completely, and I mean utterly, destroyed; simply swept away. The field office or rather, the compound is right on the beach. The setting is amazing. My room is only about 20 meters or so from the Indian Ocean. That may sound great, and it really is, but you have to get used to the sound of the crashing waves when trying to fall asleep; it can get pretty loud! The sunsets are absolutely mesmerising. I was introduced to the entire staff and joined the three young CDR teams. Here as well, I was heartily received and the teams were all eager to show me their progress in the field.

Wednesday was a particularly fun day. In the morning I followed one of the CDR teams to Blang Mon Lung, a small village about an hour’s drive from Calang, towards Banda Aceh. There, the team measured the distance from a water source to the village in order to assess the requirements for establishing a water system. This took us on thrilling journey into the jungle. We slashed our way one kilometre into it, following a small stream (picture). This, by the way, is also the domain of the Sumatran tiger! Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, we did not encounter any. And it would not be a jungle if you did not come out of it without half a dozen leeches stuck to your feet. It was a nice little adventure; it is something else than spending another day at the office! On the way back I took a few pictures of the ravaged mangrove area (below).

Let me briefly summarise the CDR strategy in a number of steps. This will place everything in the right context. After an elaborate selection procedure, the chosen communities are approached and informed about the CDR programme. Should they agree with the programme, a partnership agreement is signed between the community and the IRC. After this, a comprehensive Community Participatory Assessment (CPA) takes place in which a number of participative exercises are carried out with the beneficiaries. This process culminates in an action plan. Subsequently, a Community Development Board (CDB) is elected based on the qualifications required to implement the plan. The CDB fine-tunes the action plan, writes a community proposal and is consequently responsible for all phases of the project cycle. The communities can claim a grant of up to 55.000,- USD (approximately 43,000,- EUR) to realise their project(s). An important condition is that the communities provide a significant contribution to the costs. This stimulates a sense of ownership on the part of the community, a precondition for sustainability.

On Thursday I accompanied another CDR team to Padang Datar, where the CDB was trained on the procurement process. Padang Datar is one of the first three communities whose project proposal was approved this week. In the evening we were supposed to witness the formal signing of the contract but sadly we could not attend. That was a shame because it would have been interesting and made for a good photo opportunity. On Friday I went with to Kabong, where the community problems were ranked and the CDB subsequently elected. This was very exciting.

Finally, I had a look at another Quick Impact Programme (QIP). To reiterate, QIPs are programmes designed to assist households, groups or an entire community to recover livelihoods and re-establish local economies. The beneficiaries receive a cash grant to implement various projects. The IRC implemented these QIP with the financial support of Stichting Vluchteling (the Netherlands Refugee Foundation). In Sentosa I spoke with the head of the association of becak drivers. A becak is a local taxi consisting of a motorbike with a sidecar that can transport a number of passengers (picture). A total of 38 becak drivers were provided with a grant in the sub-district Krueng Sabee. With this grant, the beneficiaries were able to make a down payment on a becak. On a daily basis, a part of their earnings is given to the association, which takes care of administrative issues and coordinates the debt repayment with the supplier. After two years, the debt will have been fully paid off. The head of the association is extremely satisfied with the programme and had many good things to say about it: 'everyone is happy to have a steady income again and be able to do what they were doing before the Tsunami as well'. He was especially pleased with the programme’s sustainability and was hoping to see more of such initiatives.

That is it for this week’s log. I have included a number of pictures below. As you can see, the potential for tourism in Aceh is enormous, were it not for the Sharia law...