Banda Aceh - Singapore`s Foreign Minister George Yeo has officiated the opening of a new integrated boarding school in the Indonesian province of Aceh on Tuesday.
The school was jointly built by the Singapore International Foundation and its Indonesian partner Yayasan Fajar Hidayah as part of Singapore`s contributions to the reconstruction of Aceh after the December 2004 tsunami.
Of the 250 students, many of them lost family members and their homes when the tsunami struck the province in 2004.
"This school is a wonderful symbol of friendship between the people of Singapore and people of Indonesia, and in particular the people of Aceh," said Mr Yeo.
This S$5.3 million (US$3.6m) school-cum-orphanage has seven buildings, which include 22 classrooms, dormitories for students and teachers, as well as a multi-purpose hall.
The Fajar Hidayah Integrated Boarding School can accommodate some 1,200 students, half of whom will stay in the dormitories.
This integrated boarding school, which sits on a piece of land the size of six football fields, is one of the biggest in Aceh built after the 2004 tsunami.
The school is a vast improvement from the temporary rooms students were occupying in the past two years. Besides catering to 1,000 students, the school also hopes to be a centre of activities for the community that lives around it.
With the S$88 million (US$60.8m) donated by Singaporeans after the tsunami, the Singapore government and non-government organisations (NGOs) have built houses and a pier, and renovated a hospital in Aceh.
And Singapore has pledged to continue helping Aceh on its road to recovery.
"I feel very proud… It`s great to see people of Aceh recovering step by step. And what they need to do now is to work the economy. I had a good meeting with the governor… Bapak Irwandy Yusof, and I told him we`re a small country - Singapore. What we can do is (to) help you train your people… If they have good local government, it can make a big difference," said the foreign minister.
The international community has pledged some US$6.4 billion towards Aceh`s reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Most of the infrastructure projects in Aceh are likely to be completed by the end of next year.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com (7 November 2007)
