Lambrineu Foundation - Project Staff

One day after Aceh’s official mass commemoration of the tsunami one year earlier, on the 26th of December, Lambrineu held the grand opening of its Community Home in Lampaya, Lhok Nga. After a day of mourning the opening was a day of looking ahead, towards a better future for those who lost their loved ones, homes, employment and income.

While early that morning the rain was still poring down, at 09.30, half an hour before the opening was set to begin, the raining stopped and sun broke through the clouds. Underneath the five waving flags that represented the international character of this private initiative (Indonesian, Dutch and Belgium flags, as well as those of Unicef and the Lambrineu Foundation), seven young and beautifully dressed girls from a similar number of villages of the Lhok Nga sub-district opened the ceremony with a traditional welcome dance, kindly asking the two-hundred or so guests to take their seats.

The vice chairman of Lambrineu and Former Ambassador to Belgium, Mr. Sulaiman Abdulmanan, opened the ceremony and welcomed the guests. He introduced the private humanitarian initiative to the guests and introduced the initiator of the project, Mr. Rio D. Praaning Prawira Adiningrat, special advisor to Lambrineu and managing partner of PA Asia in Jakarta and PA International in Brussels. Mr. Praaning’s words were translated by a Lambrineu staff member who he met in a nearby refugee camp ten months earlier, when he first visited Lhok Nga almost immediately after the tsunami. Together this man from Brussels and the young lady from Lhok Nga resembled the success of the project; how a wild idea became reality. How children from the refugee camp where they met that day, only 50 meters from the community home, are now actually playing and learning in the fully operational community home.

Next spoke Mr. Hasballah M. Saad, Lambrineu’s Chairman and Former Minister of Justice and Human Rights. He referred to the one and only positive thing that the tsunami brought: a lasting peace process to a region that was divided for over 25 years. Mr. Rasidi, the head of the Lhok Nga sub-district, spoke next and underlined the importance of community-based projects. He praised Lambrineu for its community-based approach, in which it planned project activities in consultation with local community leaders and offer these leaders a home for further planning of rehabilitation of the region. Mr. Bart Smit, representative of Rotary Club Brussels-Coudenberg in Belgium and second vice chairman to Lambrineu, explained how he and Rio Praaning succeeded in mobilizing support from Rotary Clubs in Belgium and elsewhere in the world, and how this initial support gave them the drive to move on with further fundraising and project planning.

Ambassador Sulaiman as Master of Ceremony Two official representatives from Europe also spoke. Mr. Nikolaos Van Dam, the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Indonesia, has been a warm supporter of the initiative from the start, and paid a second visit today. In fluent Indonesian he congratulated Lambrineu with its achievement and expressed his hope for long-lasting relations between the two countries. Mr. Peter Feith, special envoy of the EU to Aceh and head of the Aceh Monitoring Mission which guards the peace process, spoke of the clear need for this type of modest yet effective rehabilitation projects in the region, especially in turbulent times faced by Aceh today.

The final speaker was Mr. Hans Nijhoff, Director of the Community Home, who introduced Lambrineu’s staff and thanked them for their endless support in bringing this project to a success. Looking back at the start of the construction process in May to the full implementation of rehabilitation projects in December, he introduced the 15 Lambrineu staff members, ranging from building supervisors to agro-economists to medical doctors and nurses.

These staff members, all of them local Acehnese, represented the various activities that were now being offered to the Lhok Nga community by Lambrineu. Mr. Sulaiman Abdulmanan concluded the speeches, asking Mr. Rio Praaning and Mr. Hasballah Saad to sign a marble stone to remember this day’s opening. Then a group of ten Lhok Nga teenagers entered the stage and gave an impressive singing and poetry performance on a year ago and today, sending chills throughout the public. Mr. Rendra, possibly Indonesia’s most famous poet, closed the ceremony with a brief poem selected for today’s event. The Imam of Lampaya village then blessed the building and the community home was officially opened.

Inside, guests were offered a traditional Acenese lunch while having the opportunity of learning more on the variety of projects offered from the community home. When entering the home guests were welcomed by a crowd of playing and cheering children from the playroom to the left. Under guidance from experienced staff from both Unicef and the Ministry of Woman Empowerment (KPP), children between two and eight play and learn in this dedicated room during set morning and afternoon sessions. In the spacey room at the far end of the corridor, guests were silently observing the exposition of the children trauma-healing team that was created especially for this day. Drawings and poems made by children while expressing their positive and negative feelings were exhibited, with staff members explaining the exercises and processes to the visitors.

In the next room the medical doctor and her two nurses gave information on Lhok Nga’s need for the by now fully operational and equipped medical clinic. The small room attached to the clinic, next to the large shower and bathroom for patients, was stacked with boxes of WHO-medicine kits and the doctor explained that this room serves a pharmacy room. The regional Lhok Nga planning center and permanent office of Unicef / KPP is situated next to this medical clinic. When asked, staff expressed their happiness of having not only a proper office for planning their activities in the community home, but also the facilities to implement their playroom, trauma healing, re-unification and child protection activities in the region.

When opening the next door one could see a bright, modern and fully equipped dental clinic. The dentist, who just like the medical doctor originates from the Lhok Nga sub-district and saw his clinic destroyed by the tsunami exactly one year ago, explains his eagerness to work from his new clinic. For 12 months Lhok Nga’s population has had no access to any form of dental care. Supported by his assistant, he started operating the clinic only one week ago and sees the number of patients growing by the day.

The next room in the corridor is the project room. From here Lambrineu’s team of technical experts works on a number of economic rehabilitation projects. The livelihoods coordinator explains that the largest project focuses on re-starting ginger farmers. The team identified this project in June, successfully submitted a project proposal to UNDP in July and signed a contract with them in October to help 320 ginger farmers in Lhok Nga to re-start their production. In a similar way Lambrineu started the support to 50 chili pepper farmers, and is currently working on a project plan to create a well-funded project bank for additional start-ups of farmers and small entrepreneurs. Finally, the team is involved in a large project, in close cooperation with Dutch water companies, to connect between 300 and 500 houses in Lhok Nga to a new water supply system.

At the end of the hall we see two guest rooms for national or international visitors, fully equipped with own bathroom, desks, closets and beds. Lambrineu has reached its goal of becoming a fully operational Community Home. Today, the entire regional community makes intensive use of it. The Home breathes new life into a deeply shocked and incredibly damaged society. New life is taking shape in many young families that as yet have found no home of their own. With over 300.000 roofless people indeed much remains to be done. But the new life cycle that has begun will soon bear fruit.