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NEWS     NTA President Tony Hewett has just returned from a visit to Aceh and has provided the following report -  click here to see the photos and read Tony's report below: Tony Hewett – Aceh trip June 2009 Report   This year’s Aceh trip (3rd one for me) was a short one leaving here on Sat June 13 and getting back on Sunday morning June 21.   Also on this trip were Tji Srikandi-Goodhart who has been with us from the beginning and had a major role in setting up NTA.  Tji has always been a great fundraiser as well selling many dinner tickets.  Two of Tji’s friends Anne and Mervyn Chappell also came along.  Tji and her friends main tasks were to evaluate some tourist spots in Aceh.  My main concern was to catch up with people in Aceh and particularly in Layeun, but also to advance our discussions about possible ways for Yayasan NTA (our Indonesian foundation) to earn money in its own right.  It’s been nearly 5 years since the tsunami and we have raised about $120,000 but this rate of collection can’t go on for ever so we need the Indonesian foundation working with the Layeun community to expand its fundraising capability.  I did find that the Layeun community are committed to their children’s future and enhancing their education opportunities.   So we took off to Aceh with these goals in mind and we certainly learnt a lot along the way.  Here are some highlights and insights from my first trip there since 2006.   NTA Activities:  These are going really well and are still managed very well by our Acehnese counterparts.  Of course I already knew this through our daily contact and monthly reports they send us but to see it again was terrific.  Of the 65 children we still sponsor 24 are from Layeun and I managed to meet a few of them between the endless array of meetings.   The learning centre at Layeun has 5 computers and a number of teenagers are doing formal computer training in Microsoft Word and Excel.  Herawati our teacher is studying at AMIKI (the computer and management training school in Band Aceh) and spends a lot of time commuting there, so Muhammad Nur Fajri, one of our sponsored boys who has just finished high school has been doing a lot of the teaching.  Hera has done a great job passing on her course skills to him and this is also a great way for our students to give back to the village.  Hera works very closely with people from Bethesda, the Singapore agency who are involved in teaching English and other activities there.  Bethesda have worked in Layeun for a long time now and have also financed a number of palong (fishing platforms) for the village.  Ijah working with Adista (French agency) is also teaching the younger kids a number of things including dance and other activities at Rumah Aceh.  In short all these people work together for the Layeun community and are really committed to the children, there are no real boundaries between them, they all help each other out as it should be.  The kids get to participate in all these things.   One thing that stood out to me is that the west coast road has now been sealed through to Layeun which makes it a 20 minute trip.  Last time I was there it was 1.25 hours and had to get off and push the motorbike in some places.  Bridges have now been fixed and are not one way wooden planked ones.   Juni:  Juni is a young man who is involved in a local youth organisation and besides me living in his house for two nights and driving me around he is a real driving force in the community, not to mention the great food at his mother’s place we all enjoyed.  Juni builds boats and does almost all odd jobs you can imagine.  He also presents himself well at a number of meetings we had including with the Aceh Tourism Authority, Mayor and Aceh Development Board.  Our plans to engage the local community in tourism activities are still being evaluated but there is definite positive support from government authorities.  Now it is a matter to discuss with potential tour operators in the adventure travel area to see if they are keen to get involved in this area.  Juni and Hera have both had opportunities to meet people from other parts of the world and you can see how this has benefited Hera over the years.  She is only 23yo and has come along way since being in the refugee barak in Lambaro where she started teaching with us nearly 4 years ago.   Tourism in general:  Pulau Weh is certainly beautiful for diving and snorkelling and the 45 minute ferry ride from Banda Aceh is quick and on a nice new ferry.  However I would suggest the area is most suitable for the younger people keen on these activities.  The area is quite hilly with beautiful scenery and great huts built into the hills which run to the sea.  You can see bright blue fish swimming up to your room without even having to leave the hammock, but unfortunately I only had one night there as I was short of time. They are very well organised there with the lovely Verena and her partner taking care of our group for a couple of days.  You may be familiar with Verena from previous updates as she was instrumental in helping us facilitate the delivery of the computers.  Some of these are in Sabang at the FIG-Indonesia learning centre.   Banda Aceh is interesting for tsunami style tourism, mainly in the form of boats washed up in strange places about 3 km from the sea.  The Grand Mosque, Mesjid Baitturahman is a beautiful building as well and there are some nice hotels there, I have stayed in 3 different ones there, Hermes Palace (international standard) Hotel Sultan (more central and almost as good) and Hotel Wisata (comfortable, great central location if you want something a bit cheaper than the other two).  They do lack some basic things for tourists such as maps but we think there is something to build on.   One issue is that I don’t think they have done well at preserving their tsunami tourism.  The tsunami museum which is a beautiful building still is not open and has nothing in it.  This is still being discussed as government authorities argue about who is actually going to run it.  I raised this in an interview I had on talk back radio, Radio Baitturahman in Banda Aceh where I managed to talk about NTA activities but had raised this as a bit of a sore point as well.  Sayed, one of the YNTA committee members  runs the radio program – and he spoke slow enough for me to understand the questions.  The city has come a long way since the tsunami with some nice new buildings and footpaths along the river etc.  I've put some photos on the web site for you to look at these.   Down the coast where we work in Layeun the drive is beautiful with a lot of white sand beach.   Food – the Aceh noodles and sate matang are still delicious.  Ikan bakar or fish grilled on the open fire are certainly a highlight as well   We brought plenty of the handbags from Aceh to sell again.  Thanks to Becky’s friend Lia who works at the Muhammadiyah orphanage for helping us with these.  By the way the orphanage now that it has been rebuilt is fantastic and the kids are very lucky to have it.  One thing we are now discussing with this establishment is whether Juni and Mus (Muslim Amiren chairperson of YNTA) can use some of the wood from their old buildings to build beach huts at Layeun.  The villagers there believe that they can rent out some of these huts on their beautiful beach and generate a few dollars for local projects.   Anda coming to Australia: I managed to speak to 5 students who were potentially going to come to Australia to study the graduate entry English language program at Adelaide Uni in August.  Anda, 22yo from Sabang who is studying Hotel Management and is interested in the tourism industry is coming in August to do this 5 week course.  This is fantastic and Tji and John are very happy as Anda was a great help to us in Sabang.  She is a lovely girl and we hope that our supporters get to meet her.  Becky will have her staying with her and we are all looking forward to it.   Tji and John got to meet the girls they sponsor, Desi and Putri and we were lucky enough to have them with us to enjoy ikan bakar one night.    There were a number of other meetings with eg Mashadi who works with World Vision projects in Layeun, Iqbal from Forum bangun Aceh and Hanafi, youth worker in Layeun.  These like most of the others are contacts we had had for awhile there so it was great to catch up.   Stay tuned for updates soon about other projects where we work together with some of these people as we move forward.  Hopefully I can give you a lot more frequent updates as there is certainly a lot happening, even more so just after a trip to Aceh.   Tony Hewett President NTA. Email - thewett@adam.com.au Click HERE for the latest update report (JULY 2009) on a total summary of NTA activities and  achievements October 2006 The second NTA Dinner to help the children of Aceh was held on 28th October 2006 at the Hungarian Club in Norwood, Adelaide.   Click here to see photos of the evening NTA Update - July 2005 Since the NTA dinner the NTA Inc committee has been busy with a further fundraising event. The Motorcycle Riders Association of SA Inc, in conjunction with the network, conducted a “Mannum Run” which departed from the BP petrol station on West Terrace on Sunday 22nd May 2005. The trip ended at the Mary Ann Reserve at Mannum with a barbecue provided by the network. Terima kasih banyak to all people who helped make this event a success. $500 was raised from this event. You can see some photos from the events by clicking here: http://www.mrasa.asn.au/gallery/album26

Things have been busy, both in Adelaide and in Aceh.  All our contact people in Aceh, one of whom is Amiren Muslim, have worked tirelessly with the committee in Adelaide. Their main initial task was to identify a group of children in need of financial support. At May 31st the amount in the network account was $32,000. So far over $10,000 has been sent to Aceh, with approximately $8,400 so far going to the sponsorship of children. There are presently 64 children being sponsored with a final target of 100. There are issues around some children who appear to have been “double” sponsored by other NGOs in Aceh. This is being sorted out. For those at the NTA dinner who filled in forms for sponsoring a child, this is being sorted out so that your deductions can be made soon. We apologise for the delay but we need to make sure we a sponsoring the correct children.   A motorcycle and computers have been purchased for the network in Aceh to assist with administrative matters and to commence with establishing the Learning Centre that will assist the children in their development.   A yayasan has been established and this has taken a lot of time and effort by Mus and the Aceh group. The office for NTA is in fact operating from the Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh and has also recently launched the Learning Centre in Bada, just outside Banda Aceh. The task of managing funds, both in Adelaide and Aceh is huge and is obviously being done by unpaid, albeit skilled, people at both ends who are using a great amount of their own time. On behalf of NTA Inc we thank them all.   The President of the network Roswita Nimpuno Khaiyath, and Tony Hewett, the Treasurer in the last week have returned from a visit to Aceh. While they were there they met all the children the NTA is sponsoring (who have lost either one or both of their parents) and worked with the network to organise the Learning Centre. In forthcoming newsletters we will provide an update of information about the network’s activities, both in Adelaide and in Aceh.  A website for the NTA is currently being established and should be available soon.