The earthquake and resulting tsunami which struck in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 devastated large areas of Southern Asia, bringing immense suffering and hardship to an already poverty stricken region. With the epicenter of the earthquake being only 155 miles from the island of Sumatra, Indonesia has borne the brunt of this catastrophe. The northern province of Aceh has been most severely affected. Nearly half the victims are children.

Indonesian Children’s Relief (ICR) is a UK based non-governmental organization that was founded in January 2002. It is an organization that sponsors orphans until the age of 21 years, and develops programs to upgrade their education and skills to enable them to be self-sufficient. It focuses on alleviating the suffering of deprived children in Indonesia whose needs are largely ignored. In addition to relief work and health related projects, ICR supports over 240 orphans and widows, as well as a large number of disadvantaged children and students. All people involved in the organization are volunteers and money for orphan sponsorship goes directly to the children in need.

The main goal of ICR before the tsunami was to find one to one orphan sponsorship in Indonesia.

These children can live on just 33 English pence a day.

Allah’s messenger (peace be upon him) said, “The one who looks after the orphan whether he is his relative or not, I and he would be together in Paradise like this,” and Malik (explained it) with a gesture by drawing his index finger and middle finger close together.” (Muslim)

Nizma and one of her colleagues were recently in Aceh and were present when a teacher stood at the head of a class filled with sad little faces and asked, "Who lost a mother?" A number of hands are raised. Then she asked, "Who lost a father?" Again hands are raised. Further she asked, "Who lost both?" More hands are raised. Nizma stood with tears in her eyes and a fixed determination in her heart to do whatever she could to help those little orphans.

ICR is looking for one to one orphan sponsorship for the 300 orphans. The reason why this place was chosen is because there are more orphans there. In Banda Aceh, 80% of the population has simply vanished.

ICR is looking for a suitable site on which to build the project and once this is settled it will take about 6 months to build the facilities and get things up and running. There is a great need for volunteers. At the moment ICR is functioning with only a handful of people but of course the more people involved the faster and better work will proceed. Because most of the teachers disappeared in the tsunami, ICR is also looking for volunteers who will work as teachers, as well as doctors, counselors for the traumatized children, and caregivers.

The local Indonesian population from inland Aceh is very pleased with the work of ICR because we work to keep the children within their culture and religion and in their homeland. Many other charities take the orphans away or drop food and soap and so on by air. What ICR is doing is long term rebuilding and rehabilitation.

At the moment these 300 orphans are living in tents donated by Islamic Relief and there are many people from inland Aceh who have volunteered in many ways. This is very good because these volunteers come from the same cultural background as the orphans and so can communicate with them in terms of counseling and so on.

ICR has also hired professional storytellers and clowns to help raise the morale of the orphans, and the children are given gifts and toys. As brand new toys are expensive, ICR is now looking for second hand toys and books for the orphans and is having them sent from London to Aceh. Shipping costs have been donated but we need assistance is shipping the goods from the port in Indonesia to Aceh.

As there is no real system in place in Aceh, the orphans are vulnerable and anyone can just come along and take them. For this reason ICR is in a hurry to establish its facilities and ensure the safety and stability of the orphans so they can have the chance to live happy fruitful lives. It is easy for volunteers to enter Aceh if they are working under an organization. ICR is very pleased to be a registered charity and hence, volunteers can enter and work under our umbrella. Moreover, since ICR is trusted and respected by the local population, it is easy to move around and communicate with the people.

*Anthea Davis is a trustee of Indonesian Children's Relief. She has been involved in many Islamic youth camps including one run by Islamic Foundation. During these camps she worked with teenage girls teaching them how to set up camp in natural surroundings, and how to make and complete obstacle courses. She always seeks to build a relationship with the youth so as to help and advise them.