One month after the tsunami. Today the schools reopened.
‘Today was like the first day of life after being dead for a month. The schools have reopened for the first time today. Seeing the school children going back to school in their uniforms is the start of things going back to normal…it’s like the foundation for the future. When I saw them I wanted to cry. You don’t know what it means to us to see them going back to school. Seeing them gives us some hope…that if we don’t do this for us we have to do this for the future. Batu loncatan pertama*.
One month after the tsunami. Today the schools reopened.
‘Today was like the first day of life after being dead for a month. The schools have reopened for the first time today. Seeing the school children going back to school in their uniforms is the start of things going back to normal…it’s like the foundation for the future. When I saw them I wanted to cry. You don’t know what it means to us to see them going back to school. Seeing them gives us some hope…that if we don’t do this for us we have to do this for the future. Batu loncatan pertama*.
Outside a school building in Lampineung, Banda Aceh, a blackboard announces that school will reopen on Wednesday 26 January below it a list of schools who will use the building, and when. Many schools have been totally destroyed or badly damaged.
The first, SD Negeri No 67 reunited for the first time…
Nassruddin, teacher
“Thirty percent of the children are gathered here today, but things aren’t normal. It may take two to three weeks before some of the children return. At the moment this is just an emergency school with children being transferred here because their old schools have been completely wiped away. I think we have about seventy children here, normally we would expect 850 on the first day of school, but many have been lost, and others have not come today. Only fifty percent of the teachers are here because the others have lost family, husbands or wives, or they’re still searching for relatives. I feel very sad today because a lot of the children and the teachers have lost their families. I lost three of my brothers. But this is the first day and I’m proud to be back here at school even though the situation is very, very sad.”
Kamaliah Syamaun, headteacher
“Here only fifty percent of the school facilities remain. Books, and many, many things have been destroyed, lost or badly damaged. We are hoping that an organisation will be able to help replace them, and we can start the process of education again.”
“Some of the children are very happy to be back with their friends and teachers, but some families won’t let their children come back to school yet. The parents are not ready to let them out of their sights yet.”
“We have lost a whole generation. An Aceh generation has gone. It will take a very, very long time to replace the lost children, the lost generation…it’s all gone.”
It’s an emotional reunion for the teachers.
