Aid in Action
Jantang Leads Agricultural Recovery Effort in Tsunami Stricken Areas
This once thriving agricultural community was withering away in its own salt infested soil, wondering if it existed anymore.
Jantang |
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
USAID/C. Gredler
Jantang is a small agricultural village in the foothils of Lhoong, Aceh Besar, one of the three districts most ravaged by the devestating tsunami of December 26, 2004. Many of these coastal villages in Lhoong lost between 50 - 90 percent of their village
Jantang is one of several small coastal communities that lost between 50-90% of its population to the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Unlike the more densely populated tsunami stricken areas, Jantang did not receive immediate aid from the humanitarian organizations. Left on its own, this once thriving agricultural community was withering away in its own salt infested soil, wondering, if at all, it existed anymore.
Project Concern International (PCI), with funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), changed all that. Beginning with Cash-for-Work (CFW), a program within USAID’s Community-Based Recovery (CBR) Initiative, short-term employment was generated to enable communities to prioritize their reconstruction and rehabilitation needs and directly participate in the recovery process while earning much-needed immediate income.
45% of PCI’s direct beneficiaries are women, despite the fact that women were disproportionately killed by the tsunami. In many communities, the entire pool of able-bodied women is participating in PCI’s CFW activities.
Jantang’s first harvest of corn and peanuts from 12 hectares of land is expected to produce income upwards of Rp 100 million (US$9,650) for the 413 villagers involved in the project. Jantang’s village chief, Pak Armansyah, plans on using this income to set up a locally-administered revolving fund to finance more village-based small business, such as chicken coops and purchasing more seed.
Jantang is growing and harvesting, in all senses rebuilding as an example for other villages to follow.