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E 3. Changes from an Indonesian disaster island to the world_Arwin Solelakson with Rumana Kabir
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Arwin Suleksono, a post-disaster shelter and settlement practitioner, shares his motivation for working in post-disaster reconstruction. He was inspired to help after witnessing the devastation caused by the 2004 Asian tsunami. Arwin discusses the challenges he faces in ensuring people have the capacity to rebuild their homes following building codes. He also highlights the importance of women's involvement in construction and shares a heartwarming story of a widow who successfully rebuilt her home. Arwin also talks about the challenges of material shortages and the need for sustainable reconstruction practices. He reflects on the influx of international aid workers in Aceh after the tsunami and the impact it had on the local culture and lifestyle. Welcome to my Mars Mantra podcast. I'm your host, Rumana Kabir. In this podcast, we will share stories from changemakers working in disasters and development. Today, I'm speaking to Arwin from Indonesia. Arwin is a former colleague of mine. Arwin is a post-disaster shelter and settlement practitioner. He has also worked in many high-profile disasters, such as the Nepal earthquake, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Syria and Turkey earthquake, and many more. I met Arwin after the West Sumatra earthquake in 2009. Arwin has an excellent coordination capacity. He was bringing everyone together, all the aid agencies and government to come to a recovery process and policy solutions. Arwin has been one of the most disciplined colleagues I've met. He used to finish work on time, exercise every day after work, which I felt very excellent self-discipline to have. Because when you work in a post-disaster situation, it can be very stressful. So let's listen to our calm friend, Arwin Suleksono, today. Hello, Arwin. How are you? Hello, Rumana. I'm good. Thank you for having me. For me, it's an honor to be in your podcast. Thank you. So first, I would like you to tell us what motivated you to work in post-disaster reconstruction. Actually, I have no plan that I can be working right now. Previously, I was working for the private company for construction, and one of the leadership from Habitat for Humanity called me back in 2005, following the Asian tsunami, December 2004. He invited me to come to, as a volunteer, to see the project that they were working at the time. So they took me to the coastal town. They call it Oulele, it's actually a pack of houses, but it was gone. It was wiped out because of the tsunami. That coastal town was the ground zero of Banda Aceh. I realized that someone's house, actually, but it's like empty. So then I was thinking, maybe this is the biggest disaster in my lifetime. Then I came to Habitat for Humanity leadership. So then I give them some advice how to do it. At the time, I feel not willing to work, actually, because it's a very different setting from the development or in the business, but humanitarian is a quite different world. So can you tell us a bit about what happened? How did you manage to wrap up your current career and start this new career? At the time I discussed this with my wife, I said that maybe this is the biggest disaster in our lifetime, so maybe it is important for us to contribute. Actually, I just want to work temporarily, just one year, contribute on the engineering aspect, project management. So at the time, I was just willing to work for one year, and then another year, and then another year, so until now. Because I think I have the passion on how to help people to rebuild their lives, not only house, but they are back to their normal life before the disaster. Yes. Thank you, Arun. Yes, it is very difficult to just not do anything when you see such a disaster happening in front of your eyes. So it is, that's why it's called humanitarian response, this kind of disaster work when people will get involved into rebuilding and recovery. So tell us about an experience where you felt really happy. Previously, when I came, I was introduced to the humanitarian work. I thought people were helpless, and they cannot do anything without support from the government or NGOs. And for me, it's a surprise when I worked in Nepal, I met a lady who was in the government list as the most vulnerable. She lives alone, she's an old lady, her children are living outside of the village, and with our own hand, we support her to construct only the foundation, because if she can finish the foundation, she can be entitled to get the second chance of government support. So in Nepal at the time, the government introduced the modality, three senses of support, and we provide the technical assistance and project management assistance. So after she finished the foundation, she continued the work. I was surprised, I thought the lady cannot finish the house. She can finish it after nine or 10 months. Yes, it is longer time frame compared to other, to common people. Common people, you know, they can finish only three or four months, but this lady, because of her challenges, she can finish nine months. So for me, it was so surprised when I came to her house to see, she also was so proud, she can finish the house. It is a good memory, and it's touching for my experience here. So what happened afterwards? Tell us about all the challenges that you have faced. My biggest challenge is always how to ensure the people will have the capacity to rebuild their house following the building code, because people don't have the capacity. They don't already have the current practices, which is maybe vulnerable to the hazard. So we have to change their practice, and therefore we provide trainings, we provide mentoring to the builders and to the homeowners as well. So for instance, following the tsunami and earthquake in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, we train women also to participate in the construction. If women actively participate, there are two things that we can achieve. First, the quality, second is the time. I remember I met a lady, she is a widow, but she can finish her house faster compared to their neighbors. She said that, oh, this is almost winter, I have to finish my house, otherwise my children will be out of the house during the winter. So the motivation of this lady is inspiring. That's amazing story. Even in Western countries, women are struggling to get into construction sector, and there is always this bias, but it's amazing to hear that story, how you overcome the challenges. I remember that, you know, during the tsunami of 2004, the Boxing Day tsunami, there were lots of challenges with materials, government was destroyed. Do you want to tell us what you have seen? There are a lot of engineers, architects came to support the recovery, reconstruction in Atai at the time. Everyone bring their own experience. The way we thought at the time, the good structure or the good house should be with this kind of material. For instance, people who usually have like wooden plank house and timber, everyone was introduced to the red brick or the hollow brick. So for instance, at the time, the cost of the red brick is tripled, and the inflation is like crazy. All agencies competing one to another, so it's out of control. As a humanitarian organization, we need to stop this unhealthy competition. What we did? We changed the material, we go to the community and also to donors, talk to them. Not only brick, but you can use other things. So we introduced them the cement block, and also the government working to import the material from other profits. We tried to stabilize the market at the time, the supply chain, so all agencies can resume the work because at the time it was halted. No one was able to purchase the material because the price is too high. Yes, I remember. And also, what happened is that there were not enough timber to rebuild. There is a big forest at the time, before the reconstruction. Deforestation became a big issue on 2008 at the time. The government issued a decree. You cannot use the timber because the deforestation has become the biggest challenge in the reconstruction. It was calculated earlier, but at the time, no one was very serious to take that warning ahead because everyone wanted to have red brick, and then we realized that to consume the desert for the brick kiln, we need a huge number of the wood. So that's one of the problems. I remember in 2005, we were just waiting because we could not use any local timber. We changed our design to brick houses, but people were living in traditional timber houses and that's the skill they had to rebuild. So they couldn't rebuild and we couldn't rebuild because there were no materials. And then we had to import timber from foreign countries. So it is a really challenging task for reconstructing sustainably. So it's not just about building better, build back sustainable is also hard. And tell us about your personal experience, because I understand that the living conditions were really difficult. And then you had a lot of people, international people coming in. How was the culture and the whole lifestyle in Aceh at that time? I remember there is a report mentioned that in the mid 2005, there were 5,000 expats came to Aceh in that little province of Indonesia. Aceh previously is a closed province because of the culture around three decades. Suddenly, because of the tsunami, it was wide open to everyone. Before the tsunami, even I'm from Indonesia, we have to be aware about security because of the conflict. So there is a combatants with the Indonesian government army conflict at the time. Now, because everyone is looking for their family, now it was like start to peace. I remember in August 2005 or December, so there was a peace agreement between the conflict parties. So everyone was concentrated in the reconstruction. But there were another issue because there are a lot of money pouring. I remember there's 7 billion US dollars pouring to that province. Everyone is taking, trying to get benefit of it. For instance, if we want to rent a house, it becomes very, very expensive. Some organizations cannot afford to pay the rent. So it was difficult for everyone. For small industry, it will be almost impossible to continue the work because they don't have the place to rent the office or accommodation. And what about the local people? If NGOs are raising the cost of the rented housing condition, so where did the local people live when all these reconstructions happening? It was interesting because some of them who has a big house, they rent the house for big organizations who can pay some amount of money that they are willing to take. And interestingly, they leave the house, this family who own the house, and they stay with their family or even someone want to stay in the temporary housing. So as long as they get benefit, for them, it is fine. They take some challenges, hardship during the reconstruction period. So yeah, everyone wants to get the benefit of this reconstruction at the time. Exactly. And what do you mean by temporary accommodations? Yeah, they build by themselves or they stay in the temporary shelter built by NGOs. So for most of them, they live in the temporary house built by themselves. Right. And what about the people who didn't have any kind of property? People who are squatters or landless people, where did they go? So the people who don't have a house, a legal certificate, it is one of the most challenging situations for them because if they want to get a house as a support from the government or from the humanitarian aid agency, they have to prove their ownership that they cannot have this kind of certificate. So they stay in the temporary shelter or barrack at the time, so it's quite challenging. So in Ajeg, they stay in the communal temporary shelter, we call it barrack. Right. Yes. And what have you seen in the other reconstruction projects? Because these are the people who are the most vulnerable and they don't have any kind of help from anyone. Has things changed? When I worked in Central Sulawesi after the earthquake and tsunami, those who doesn't have land certificate, they will be in trouble because the regulation is only those who have legal certificates can be supported. Yeah. So it is actually fair for regulation, per se, because if government or agency just gives the house rebuilt on which land, so it will be another issue. So it is difficult to help them. Therefore, we discuss with the organizations who have the experience on land title or property, how to support these people. It is not easy. It is to take some time. Most of the people who have experienced this, on my understanding, is in the urban. Because in the urban, usually you rent the house or you live in an apartment, which you are not on the land certificate. Maybe you only have the starter title. So it is one quite challenging urban setting. You have been in Turkey recently. That looks like it is all very urbanized earthquake. So what was your experience there in Turkey? The apartment collapsed, high-rise building collapsed. So it will take time how to rebuild. Let's say if we compare to the 2011 Japan earthquake, those area who are affected by the radioactive, so it takes more than six years that people can, because people still in the IDP at the time, because it is not safe for them to rebuild in that area. Same with the area who are in the displacement. So people took refuge in the area, IDP, nearby the affected area, but it is safer. It is same with the other area affected by tsunami or by the landslide. The government usually learned that the area affected by landslide is still not safe. It needs to stabilize. Therefore, they cannot rebuild. So they have the land certificate in that area, but they cannot rebuild. So that is a challenging situation. It takes time. After the study, if they can rebuild or the government will support them with the relocation area. And opening a new relocation area, it takes time. So that is one of the challenging in the recovery program. Yes, and this brings me to the question of sustainability. The way we are rebuilding, are you optimistic? Are we able to build back better so far in all these disasters you've been to? I think we need to reconsider the word better. If you are government or if you are donor, if you try, if you talk to build back better, because maybe you know the meaning. If we talk to the community, talk to the people or talk to the builder, I usually use the build back safer because for them the word better is mostly on the appearance of the house. The house is bigger, is more beautiful and the appearance is better. But safer, it is a minimum standard that they can do it by themselves. So if we want to talk about sustainability, we need to train the homeowner, we need to train the builder and following with the building code. This is the most important. This is really important that reconstruction should be safer and more sustainable. In terms of your own career, how do you see yourself? Do you think that you are able to carry on working in these difficult disaster zones? And if it is, then what is your secret to make yourself more resilient? Working in the post-disaster is very stressful. Sometimes we are not happy with what we realize. We are far from our target that we need to support people, how they can rebuild by themselves. So during my leisure time, I learn, I study and then I put it in my blog. And some of them I experience after I study quite some time. I write it in the conference paper that I can bring it to the audience which are the academic people. So maybe I can get some input from them, learn from others, something like that. And it gives me direction that people help me to find, let's say, the true north that this is the thing that I have to achieve. Yes, of course. And also I think that it is very important to look after yourself. And I think you produced a good example when we were working that you always finish work and then make sure you have some time for yourself to be able to recover and be more useful for the next day. Is there anything else you would like to add? And especially do you have any Mars mantra? I want to help like learn from others how to work with the reconstruction or the housing recovery in sustainable way, which is not harmful to the environment. And for yourself, what is your Mars mantra? For myself, for Mars mantra, I want to learn many things. So therefore, I can understand how to deliver better service to the affected people. Because what I want to see is those who people say the most vulnerable, they can be supported and they can recover by themselves. That is so true. Never underestimate the power of people. Thank you, Arvind. I know that it's very late at night, but thank you for your time, Arvind. Take care. Bye.
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