Aid in Action

Finding a Future:Psychosocial Support to Children

Chandra was just ten when the 2004 tsunami struck his small fishing village of Labui.

 | Monday, May 21, 2007

Chandra was just ten when the 2004 tsunami struck his small fishing village of Labui. His father and two sisters were in Banda Aceh that Sunday morning. After the earthquake he saw everyone in the village running to higher ground – to the mountains behind the village. He told his mother they too had to leave for the mountain. He could hear the giant wave coming. “It sounded like an airplane,” he explains.

Chandra’s mother ran to the nearby musholla – a small, local mosque. She knelt down and began to pray. Despite Chandra’s entreaties, his mother would not leave the musholla. Soon Chandra knew his mother would never run to the mountain.  He had to decide – then and there – what to do with his life.  He chose to leave his mother in prayer.

Now a healthy but brusque young man of thirteen, Chandra – an orphan – spends each afternoon at the Mohammadiyah Children’s Psychosocial Support program of USAID/Indonesia.

“Computers are amazing!” says Chandra. He’s learning to type so that when the center gets an internet hook up, he can communicate with the outside world. “I’d send someone a letter. I’d ask how to become a doctor. I want to help people when they are in pain,” he says, cracking his knuckles.

“Chandra didn’t talk much to other children when he came to us,” says Mailisuna, a teacher at the Labui facility. Most of the children in this village are tough kids, sea-faring stock. They never used to express their feelings,” she adds.

Mailisuna and her fellow teacher Sri Rosnijar Darmi, are both from Banda Aceh City. “They don’t have Internet Cafés in fishing villages. These kids have had no exposure,” says Darmi. Mailisuna has now moved to the village. She says Chandra often visits her home. In that privacy, he will reveal his fears. “I listen, I tell him it’s all over now,” she says.

These days, the children go down to the beach to look for shells. “They don’t even look out at the sea with fear anymore. They just play on the beach,” says Mailisuna, with some relief in her voice.

Chandra chatters incessantly about the internet. “He sees it as his future,” says Darmi. “He’s actually talking about the future!” adds Mailisuna. “Being around us and other children, he now believes he will have one.” Mailisuna laughs.

“Yeah, he keeps clicking on Internet Explorer to see it,” says Darmi.