In the field again - West Sumatra

When you are the head of a country delegation or team, it is an ongoing challenge to balance the time you spend leading from the headquarters, and giving leadership in the field where our programmes for the most vulnerable people are implemented. I have always believed the key role of a leader is to direct and motivate staff in all locations, so the vision and plans of the organisation are met. During the past four years in Indonesia I have travelled at least twice a month to the remoter parts of Indonesia, where our programmes are being implemented.

This week I spent time in West Sumatra where we are supporting the Indonesian Red Cross to build 14,500 shelters for people who lost their homes in the catastrophic earthquake late last year. The shelters are small, comfortable wooden ones that cost approximately US $ 300. These owner-driven houses are built by the owners, if they have the skills, supported by teams of Red Cross volunteers and carpenters. The houses take anywhere between 2 to 6 days to erect. Many of our staff in West Sumatra, worked for us in the Tsunami operation and gained valuable experience during the construction of Red Cross 40,000 houses, and a further 12,000 in Yogjakarta after the earthquake there in 2006. With experience, we can build cheaper and better shelters.

A Red Cross shelter in Kota Pariaman, West Sumatra.


The proud owners of a new PMI shelter with me on the right.

Most build their new home to a simple 18 square meter wooden one with cement pole foundations and sago palm roof. All of the materials are available locally and the earthquake resistant design is based on a model developed in cooperation with the local university – costing only 340 Swiss francs (318 US dollars or 237 euro).


“Shelter is a critical need after an earthquake. Getting people back into a home of their own makes a big psychological difference when recovering from such a disaster,” explains Jan Willem Wegdam, the IFRC’s Recovery Coordinator for West Sumatra Operation. Eligibility for the shelter programme depends on whether a house is severely damaged and not fit to live in. Priority is given to the elderly, the sick, families with young children and pregnant mothers, many of whom have been living in tents since the earthquake struck.

The programme is community driven with affected families actively involved from the outset. Beneficiaries receive cash grants in instalments and procure the building materials themselves. Members of the community are encouraged to help each other in the building process and Red Cross volunteers are on hand to provide technical guidance.


The Red Cross provides the funds and people are free to vary the design to suit their needs and use any extra material they may have salvaged from their old house

Creativity abounds with people varying designs and colours. I saw one house with new floor tiles and a beautiful carpet in the middle of the roon. Most have electricity and water nearby.

It was good to catch up with my old friend and colleague, Kamil Denyushev (left) from Tajikistan who is head of our logistics operation in Padang. I first worked with Kamil in Tajikistan in 1996 when we were running a winter relief operation in the Pamir mountains.

It was another tough, but enjoyable field inspection trip ( or monitoring and evaluation as they now call it) and it was a joy to work wityh my colleagues Hans, Jan and Kamil, and link up with Pak Irman and Pak Firman from PMI.

When I first arrived here we had 27 offices spread throughout Indonesia, and now it has reduced to a manageable eight.

Today I am back in Jakarta packing, dusting, discovering, reading, binning and burying five and a half years of tsunami, is an emotional and cleansing activity


 We move to the new office over the weekend so I am packing files and papers that go right back to the first day of the tsunami operation.

I brought duplicate copies of key tsunami papers from New Delhi and those, together with notes diaries, photos, DVDs which cover Maldives, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, so handling these have brought back a flood of memories. There are even photos I took of a 5 years tsunami memorial service at Patong Beach, where we released candle lit lanterns and cast them to the night sky.

A few tears have rolled down my dust speckled cheeks….My friends; it has been one hell of a long, hard and rocky path, but O the joy of reflection.

A Red Cross Heroine from France

Corinne Treherne, the International Federation transitional shelter programme’s coordinatorhands a present to children's beneficiares during the closing ceremony of the programme in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Some of us have had the privilege to come across amazingly skilled women who can communicate and implement with communities in our humanitarian work. One French woman, Corinne Treherne, has made the greatest impression on me in the last decade. She is my modern day Joan of Arc, a sort of Angel. What an achievement! Building teams to assist her construct 20,000 houses and giving 100,000 people a home after the devastating tsunami which killed over 170,000 people in Indonesia on 24 December 2004..

Early this year, the International Federation’s landmark transitional shelter programme in Aceh came to a close, with the last of the almost 20,000 shelters being completed on remote Simeulue Island. A short time ago, my colleage Vina Agustina sat down with Corinne Treherne, the programme’s coordinator, to look back on the programme and to talk about its successes, challenges and lessons.



One of the 20,000 houses that Corinne supervised the construction

Question (Q): First of all, can you tell us about the background of this programme? When did it start, and what prompted it?




When completed, the house owners show their individuality by decorating it with their colours and designes

Answer (A): The programme began in 2005. Towards the end of 2005, about 67,000 people were still living in dilapidated tents, which needed to be replaced. At the same time, tsunami affected-people were eager to rejoin their communities, and we knew that it was going to take a significant amount of time for permanent houses to be built.

Therefore, we devised a way to improve community life while people were waiting for their new permanent homes. In November 2005, the first prototype of the transitional shelter arrived at the Banda Aceh office. The transitional shelter team then made some improvements to the design to make it more appropriate to local needs and logistics.




Q : There have been a lot of actors involved in this programme: the International Federation secretariat, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and a number of non-Red Cross Red Crescent partners. How have you managed to make sure that everything is coordinated, and that the implementation has been consistent?

A : First of all, we shared the design of the shelter with all agencies involved in the tsunami operation, and with the United Nations. At first, we had weekly meetings, and then the coordination became more intensive and interactive, by phone and email, as we started to ship and build the shelters.

Q : Throughout the programme, a lot of work was done to communicate with communities about where and when the shelters would be built. Can you tell me a bit about these efforts?

A : In the beginning, we disseminated information through the organizations helping us build the shelters, so that they could deliver it to the targeted communities. We also broadcast information via local and national media. We also had a team of 24 supervisors staying in the targeted areas. Their presence eased the implementation process.

The transitional shelters have really improved community life, as they can be used for accommodation, extension of permanent houses or even for income generation if they are converted into kiosks.
Q : What kind of feedback have you had from communities?

A : Communities have responded very positively, and we have had many individual requests for the shelters. In August 2007, we conducted a satisfaction survey, funded by the Irish Red Cross, and the results indicated that about 99 per cent of people living in transitional shelters think that the programme was extremely important to rebuilding their livelihoods. It had provided them with a viable shelter alternative while permanent solutions were being prepared.


Throughout the programme, a lot of work was done to communicate with communities about where and when the shelters would be built.
Q : We often hear of the challenges facing tsunami recovery operations and I’m sure that the transitional shelter programme has been no different. What are some of the challenges that you have had to overcome? How have you addressed them?

A : Three major challenges emerged during the running of the programme. The first involved the identification of beneficiaries who have lost everything – personal papers, land deeds etc – due to the scale of the disaster. The second was related to coordination with implementing partners. Our team met this challenge by providing daily reports and analysis to partner organizations, and this proved so successful that many other agencies became interested in the programme.

The third and most complex challenge involved logistics. From the beginning, the programme has faced difficulties in obtaining building materials and delivering them to the shelter sites. The International Federation’s logistics department stepped in, mobilizing 60 M6 trucks to allow the programme to reach villages in remote areas.

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, there was hardly any road access and most of the bridges had collapsed. The trucks had to be unloaded in order to pass over temporary bridges, and loaded again afterwards. When they reached the villages, the materials had to be unloaded again.

However, the communities responded positively – such as the time villagers on the remote island of Simeulue sailed out to meet an International Federation boat that could not get close to the island’s harbour, transferred the materials to their own small vessels, and brought them ashore themselves.



Each community involved in the programme received at least two training sessions, teaching them how to erect the frames and attach the timber.
A : We have achieved a lot. The M6 trucks were crucial in the support of our operation, but it succeeded because of the hard work and coordination of everyone involved.

Q : One of the big selling points of the programme has been the fact that the shelters are owned by beneficiaries – that they are free to use them as they wish even when they receive new permanent houses. How have people been using them?

A : The transitional shelters have really improved community life, as they can be used for accommodation, extension of permanent houses or even for income generation if they are converted into kiosks. Many of those who have been given permanent houses keep their shelter as an extension at the back or at the front or their new homes.

Corinne, you definitely must be an Angel. Great to have worked with you. Bob