Shattered homes, shattered infrastructure, shattered families & shattered dreams, Sirombu a shattered village. One of the most remote and isolated villages on Indonesia’s Nias Island, Sirombu had barely been able to recover from the devastating effects of the Boxing Day Tsunami when it was hit once more by the destructive forces of the March 28th Earthquake, an 8.7 on the Richter scale, a mere 3 months later.
Heartbreak and sorrow were the only emotion that could be expressed as victims told of their ordeals by sharing stories of lost loved ones and showing the remains of their broken family homes. Everyone had a story to tell, each as sad and hard to listen to as the last. Being so remote and hard reaching Sirombu would be easily overlooked and forgotten about when considering the immensity of destruction the Tsunami and Earthquake had caused to larger more prominent cities around Indonesia and its neighboring Indian Ocean countries. This was a village in desperation.
Zero to One Foundation saw the need to reach out to this troubled village and offered its help by carrying out two separate reconstruction projects to restore livelihoods and strengthen the community in Sirombu and its neighbouring villages of Lahewa and Afulu.
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The first project was in partnership with the Australian Red Cross for the ZTOF / ARC partnership village and the second with the Monaco Asian Society + United in Diversity for the Monaco village. Working in collaboration with the these organizations Zero to One designed and implemented a coordinated, community driven shelter reconstruction program providing a total of 500 safe permanent homes, community facilities and infrastructure as well as water, sanitation and electrical systems.
Building a project of such a large scale in such a short period of time was a daunting task in itself. This challenge was further multiplied considering the many difficulties of working in such a remote location. This included limited transport and logistics networks, shortages to building materials and general safety issues such as getting access to clean, healthy drinking water.
Despite these mounting, seemingly endless challenges, in the face of adversity Zero to One and its partners managed to overcome major obstacles to provide a combined community based project which successfully supply 2500 victims a roof over their head and a safe place for them to live and prosper. Mr Wira a local fisherman and grateful recipient of a house said. “Its a nice house, more than I could have ever asked for, thank you.” He now has a place to rebuild his boats and get back to his traditional way of life, catching fish for an income to feed his family.
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Also provided as part of the community facilities were three primary schools, one first aid centre and a community hall. Accompanying infrastructure improvements ranged from creation of water treatment & sanitation systems, rebuilding of roads & bridges and the connecting of electrical services to each home. Together, both these projects injected much needed money into the economy and offered skill training for the local workforce, directly and indirectly supporting over 1000 locals.
The community based housing project assisted Nias Island residents to fill the void created by the tsunami and earthquake. Facilitating home ownership, creating employment opportunities, and supporting local businesses were a few of the major areas impacted by the livelihood focused efforts of the Zero to One Foundation and its partners. Traditionally farmers and fishermen, the residents of Sirombu, Lahewa, and Afulu were able to return to their income generating activities after their basic needs for shelter, health, education, and fresh water were restored. In delivering solutions to problems on all of these fronts, the Zero to One Foundation was able to play a principal part in empowering the victims to move from point “zero” to point “one”. |
