UNDP & Tsunami Recovery

Local Initiatives to Fight Poverty

Tsunami-hit Thai Muslim Community Granted Land Rights in a National Park

7 March 2006, Koh Muk, Trang Province Thailand – An historic ground-breaking ceremony today marks a triumph for the Muslim community living on Koh Muk in securing land rights for their resettlement after the tsunami destroyed their village. This case is a landmark victory in the fight for secure land tenure along the tsunami-ravaged Andaman coast of Southern Thailand. More

Tsunami survivor from Banda Aceh, Nursabiqah is a 32 year old bank employee on her first day of trading.

All-Women Local Bank opens in tsunami hit Meuraxa, Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh, 2 February 2006 – Residents of Meuraxa in Banda Aceh can now deposit their money, apply for loans and get general financial supports and advice from their own local bank named Baitul Quiradh Meuraxa.

The bank is a new branch of the shari’ah-based microfinance institution of Baitul Quiradh Baiturrahman (BQB) – unusual because it is entirely run by women. BQB lost most of their assets and many of their personnel and clients in the tsunami of 2004. Meuraxa, which is a district within Banda Aceh, was one of the worst-hit areas of the tsunami, losing an estimated 90% of its population and almost all of its buildings and infrastructure. More...

Tsunami survivors in Banda Aceh receiving small businesses assistance

Banda Aceh, 19 October 2005 —More than 2,000 tsunami survivors are receiving entrepreneurial training under the first stage of UNDP’s small businesses project.

The project offers training in business basics, such as in adopting a business plan and in managing finances. After completing the training, the would be entrepreneurs are then invited to submit business plans – and those that are considered viable receive a grant of US$150 to help them get started. So far, 300 businesses have been awarded grants. Full Story

Job retraining key to reconstruction in Aceh

Meulaboh, Aceh, 8 September 2005 —Mulia Hati, a centre for women’s employment and support operated by Samaritan’s Purse and funded by UNDP opened just a few weeks ago but has already become a second home to the women working here.

Working women at Mulia Hati, a centre for women’s employment and support operated by Samaritan’s Purse and funded by UNDP.

Eight months after the tsunami, signs of change and renewal in Aceh are becoming clearer by the day. Houses are going up, children are back in school and even those still in temporary housing are starting to return to work. Full story.

Tsunami survivors start over: Women use UNDP 'Cash for Work' earnings for businesses

Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 21 June 2005 —Several tsunami survivors who have participated in UNDP’s Cash for Work programme have invested their earnings in new businesses. Although the wages paid by the programme are modest for their efforts to clear rubble, mend boats and fishing nets and clear land—they are paid 35,000 RP per day (about US$3.50)—some have managed to save and invest in new businesses which are now providing them with a steady income and the basis for a new post-tsunami future. Full story.

Maldives fishermen now harvesting tsunami driftwood

31 May 2005, Dhiggaru, Maldives: Hussein Moosa used to be a fisherman on Dhiggaru, a remote island in the Maldives. Today he spends his days collecting and chopping up Indonesian hardwood, which was dragged out to sea when the tsunami struck on 26 December last year. The timber is now beginning to float ashore in other countries across the region, posing a hazard for the speedboats that ply the waters of the Maldives, but also offering a possible source of income and building materials for the thousands of fishermen and their families who have lost boats and fishing gear.

The hardwood, which would fetch hundreds of dollars per cubic metre in western countries, is being sawed into planks for use in boats and to fix houses on the island of 1,200, where 14 families are still displaced from the tsunami. Full story

Tsunami survivors work to clear coastal debris in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, 22 April 2005 —Using bare hands, shovels and barrows, tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka are cleaning the debris-strewn coast and getting paid for it under a United Nations Development Programme project funded by the Japanese government. Full story.