West Coast adventure

Kabupaten Aceh Jaya - West Coast - November 2005, the final frontier. These are pictures of the Habitat For Humanity Indonesia - Tsunami
Disaster Response team in a place called Gunung Mancang. It's a humanitarian mission, to help the tsunami victim to have a decent house to live. At that time, Gunung Mancang was where no man wanted to go.


Gunung Mancang is an area in the West Coast Aceh, it is between Kuede Patek to Lhok Kruet. It is on the way from Meulaboh to Banda Aceh.

It was a devastated area. The roads and bridges were wiped out by the tsunami. To transport materials and workers, we have to go there, though.

I went here at November 30, 2005. From Kuede Patek to Lhok Kruet, which should have been in one hour with 4x4 vehicles, I took 24 hours plus 7 minutes.

Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

Bailey bridge on the Road between Calang and Rigah is about to collapse

If you were in Rigaih (our West Coast office was there), you know how horrendous it was passing this bridge. Every day more than 10 times, our cars cross it to Calang, back and forth. The big question mark is. Can we use this bridge to bring our material? We have a similar condition on the bridge near Lhok Kruet. It means delivering material from Banda Aceh either from Meulaboh to West Coast will be delayed, waiting for the bridge to be repaired.


Email from Joerg Meier, Head of Aceh Jaya Field Office, Office of the United Nations Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias (UNORC). In his email, he wrote: according to a CRS engineer assessment, the damaged Bailey bridge on the Road between Calang and Rigah is about to collapse any time. Please pay extreme caution when crossing the section (picture attached). CRS is looking into improvement but currently still waiting for heavy equipment and spare parts.


Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

First day in Aceh

As my aircraft landed at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Banda Aceh at 04.50 PM local time, this is my first day*) in Aceh. I will be joining Habitat for Humanity for one year. My assignment is for Operations Manager for Habitat for Humanity Indonesia (HFHI)for Aceh Tsunami Disaster Response Project. I will be in charge of all their service area. And that will be in Banda Aceh, Sigli, Meulaboh and West Coast. HFHI planned to build 10.000 houses in those areas.

There is a huge opportunity and responsibility. Hopefully, with the help of God, I will be able to accomplish the job.

Arwin Soelaksono

*) Actually, my first visit to Aceh was on August 9, 2005. I came as a volunteer for HFHI. I conducted site visits in the tsunami-affected area in Banda Aceh and provided project management advice to HFHI field management.