Tsunami: first green shoots of a recovery

"REMEMBER. Rebuild" is the slogan of the Indonesian reconstruction agency, set up after the 26 December tsunami killed 231,452 people around the Indian Ocean.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors are doing plenty of both as the anniversary of one of nature's most ferocious episodes approaches.

And there is plenty of rebuilding still to do. Although reconstruction is proceeding as fast as governments and aid agencies can manage, more than 1.5 million people in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand are still living in tattered tent camps, military- style barracks or crammed in with relatives.

Problems in acquiring land, unclear government policies and aid agencies' lack of expertise in building shelters have all contributed to delays.

But although progress is slow, rebuilding is proceeding at a steady pace, thanks to a massive response by the international community to the disaster.

Overall, aid agencies raised more than Pounds 6.5 billion, "the most generous and most immediately funded international emergency relief effort ever", UN emergency coordinator Jan Egeland has said.

The donor community has pushed for community involvement in the reconstruction effort, one of the reasons home rebuilding has gone so slowly, Oxfam International said in a report this week.

And as the physical debris is cleared from coastal communities, health workers are also repairing the wreckage in people's minds.

The tsunami pulverised entire communities and slaughtered their inhabitants.

The monster waves left thousands of orphans, "bachelor towns", women bereft of children and the compounded grief from multiple deaths in families.

Aid groups such as New York-based International Rescue Committee have set up "child-friendly spaces" to help heal the psychic wounds of the young.

About a fifth of Indonesia's children are suffering at least slight trauma, said Sonny Irwan, an IRC programme coordinator for Cot village in Banda Aceh province, one of the most devastated regions in the country.

At the IRC centre, children draw pictures, play on swings and sing songs with incredible gusto. "In the beginning, they just drew pictures of the tsunami," Irwan said. "Now the pictures are of normal families with the sun and the sky."

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