Heri Syahrial: promoting safe water in Banda Aceh

Heri says that he is grateful to the people who helped him when he had nobody to turn to: “People allowed me to stay on their home when I didn’t know where to go and gave me some food when I didn’t have anything to eat. People who I didn’t know before the tsunami assisted me out of the kindness of their hearts. The solidarity came not just from Acehnese people but from people all over Indonesia and around the world. It touched my heart.”

Heri wanted to find a way of helping other victims of the tsunami and of forgetting his own sadness and feelings of loss. “My friends suggested that I apply for a vacancy at CARE International. I mustered up the courage to apply for a position within the health programme, which suited my degree in radiology. On January 23rd I started working at CARE International.”

As part of the health team, Heri had to explain to explain to local communities how to use ‘safe water systems’, a liquid distributed by CARE which is used to make water safe to drink and prevent the spread of diarrhoea. Initially, explaining the safe water system to communities was a challenge, because some of the people refused to use it. “The staff used to joke that we were SWS salesmen,” he laughs. Thanks to the continuous efforts of Heri and other CARE staff members, most people in the district where he works now use the safe water systems.

Heri compares working with the affected communities to working for his own family. “The women in the villages are like my mother. I work for people who have the same experiences as me. I can feel what they feel. It makes me very glad to be helping them.”

Heri says that although the situation in affected communities today is better than it was, things are not yet back to normal. His biggest fear is that aid agencies will leave before all of the houses and infrastructure have been rebuilt.

He hopes that life for the victims of the tsunami in Aceh will soon get back to normal, that all of the victims will have new homes, and that people who lost their jobs as a result of the tsunami will be able to get back to work. In the future, Heri hopes to set up his own business.