Lhoknga - People in the town of Lhoknga, Indonesia, recently celebrated the opening of a junior high school that Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) helped rebuild after it was destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
About 250 students attended an Oct. 25 dedication ceremony before attending classes in their own school for the first time since the tsunami struck the coast of Indonesia`s Aceh province on Dec. 26, 2004.
Lhoknga sits along the Indian Ocean, and it suffered some of the tsunami`s worst devastation. The wave killed several thousand residents and destroyed most of the town`s buildings, according to Jeff Yoder, MCC`s tsunami response coordinator in Aceh.
However, the junior high school is now the latest sign that Lhoknga is being rebuilt. Homes, schools and government buildings are springing up in the area cleared by the tsunami.
"Two years ago, you would have seen nothing between the streets and the ocean," Yoder says. "Now, it`s dotted with hundreds of houses."
After the tsunami, many families from Lhoknga lived in temporary shelters or moved in with relatives. Their children went to school in tents or attended schools in other towns. Some schools had to hold separate morning and afternoon sessions to accommodate students from Lhoknga and other communities where schools were destroyed.
MCC provided about $1 million to construct and furnish the school in partnership with an Indonesian organization, Center for Education and Development. The school includes 12 classrooms, basketball and volleyball courts, a computer lab, a science lab, an administration building and a library.
Yoder says that the school was planned in consultation with local residents, and it was designed to withstand earthquakes. In the event of another tsunami, which is unlikely, a new tsunami warning system is in place with sirens to tell residents of Lhoknga and other coastal communities to flee inland.
"The community is definitely bouncing back, and that`s a real good thing to see," Yoder says. "And I believe that by constructing schools, it`s only going to encourage the community to come back and to recover. People are going to feel more comfortable about moving back into the area if they know their children have a school that they can attend."
Dwi Budiarto, an MCC program officer, says that the Lhoknga junior high school had an excellent reputation before the tsunami destroyed its building and killed many students and staff members, including the headmaster.
Now, the school has a new headmaster and many new, first-time teachers – and the people of Lhoknga are hoping that they will have an excellent junior high school again. At the dedication ceremony, a local government leader praised the building but noted that the school`s staff and students would ultimately be responsible for making the school a success.
"People are really eager to see this school come back," Budiarto says.
Source: www.reliefweb.int (3 November 2007)
