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span class="inline inline-left">Guide book: A student displays a module of disaster mitigation in the process of education for the public at a school in Banda Aceh. Education in disaster mitigation is more effective through schools. JP/Hotli SimanjuntakThe experience of huge waves dashing into Seulawet in Layeun village, Aceh, on Dec. 26, 2004, is still fresh in the mind of Zohra Bukhari, 32, a resident of Seulawet on the coast of West Aceh.  

People were panic-stricken, taking flight and screaming to give warnings about soaring sea water,” said Zohra as he recalled the tsunami seven years ago. Zohra had to help his limping father to Ujong Gle, a hill on a headland right across from the village.

On the hill, hundreds of Layeun villagers had taken refuge, gazing at the rumbling waves that battered the hill. “The waves looked like very tall black walls, ready to overwhelm everybody,” added Zohra. The powerful tsunami that ravaged even concrete buildings is a lingering trauma for Zohra, though as a believer he tries to understand it as the omnipotence of God.

The devastation to the western coast of Aceh, besides serving as a religious reminder, has also provided a valuable lesson not only to Zohra and the thousands of Acehnese affected, but also to the world community that it could face misfortunes on the same scale. There is now awareness about responding to the signs of nature: Strong earthquakes followed by receding water should prompt people to immediately seek places of refuge on higher ground.

“We’ve made such signs an indication for us to save ourselves and also a very practical standard procedure for coastal people to prevent the emergence of casualties,” Zohra said.

A tsunami can indeed result from an underwater quake. But shifting seabed plates can also trigger enormous waves that travel thousands of kilometers away from the epicenter. That’s why the tsunami that pounded the coasts of the Maldives and India didn’t start with tremors as felt by those in Aceh.

“Without being preceded by quakes, it’s surely very hard to predict. Even tsunami victims like us can’t forecast another tsunami,” said Suarni, a resident of Layeun who survived the disaster. So far, she has relied on the signs already learned in 2004 for early detection. Never has she thought that any major tremor far beyond Aceh could generate tsunami waves reaching the coastal area where she lives.

“If that is the case, we can only resign ourselves to God,” Suarni added. But knowledge and awareness of disasters are extremely important to communities living on the western coastal zone of Aceh, especially in areas without tsunami early warning equipment.

The lack of knowledge of village people, particularly those in disaster-prone areas, is attributable to the lack of community-based education and information on disaster preparation. This is worsened by the small amount of early warning infrastructure available, such as tsunami sirens.

“As far as I know, tsunami sirens can only be found in major cities like Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, not in areas a bit farther,” said Suarni. The only place of escape in her village is the hilly area not far from the coast. Most Layeun villagers, according to Suarni, managed to flee to the hill during the tsunami, with only 10 casualties. But the lack of casualties was due to their survival instinct and the hill’s proximity instead of their disaster knowledge.

“I’ve never heard my parents speak of big calamities like tsunamis. It’s something new,” Suarni said. In the reconstruction period, when NGOs and donor agencies flooded in, there were not that many education programs to boost public awareness about disasters arranged for local people, apart from housing development.

“Training on how to face earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters was once provided, but only a few times,” Suarni said. In Japan, education about calamity mitigation has been far more advanced. Japan’s disaster handling experience has taught many useful things to people in this mishap-prone country.

“The awareness to anticipate disasters is even nurtured when children are still in kindergarten,” said Kotaro Kinoshita, an announcer on Japan’s Fuji TV. This awareness is not well understood by Aceh’s tsunami victims, according to Kotaro. He wonders why people in Aceh, particularly those in vulnerable areas, have no operational standard to face calamities, while the 2004 tsunami should serve as valuable experience to anticipate similar situations.

In his view, this education is important as part of the public’s preventive action to reduce the number of victims of tsunami-like disasters. Citing an example, Kotaro referred to the tsunami in Japan in March 2011. “In terms of the damage it caused, the March 2011 tsunami was very devastating. But the total of its victims could be minimized because the public was aware of how to deal with such a disaster,” Kotaro said.

The Japanese are also taught always to be prepared to face sudden disasters, for instance by preparing bags filled with clothes, drugs and vital equipment for emergency circumstances. The bags’ contents are renewed every six months. “When a disaster occurs, people have adequate supplies to save themselves,” added Kotaro, who doesn’t see such preparation among people in Aceh.

The minimum knowledge of such matters in Aceh society has become a big challenge to all the circles concerned with disaster warning and post-disaster handling in the province.

“We’re now endeavoring to educate people to promote their awareness of disaster preparedness, especially in areas vulnerable to calamities like tsunamis,” said Muklis A. Hamid, education and training advocacy manager of the Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC) of Syah Kuala University.

The effort is meant to boost the capacity of alertness training and the commitment of schools to make themselves alert to disasters. “Today the TDMRC has several mitigation and disaster handling education projects in 28 schools around Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar,” Muklis said.

The TDMRC provides education for the public from an early stage, with the aim of making disaster anticipation and mitigation instruction integrated with school curriculums, particularly in Aceh. “Instead of directly changing the school curriculum now, we’re first trying to include this education in some extracurricular areas that don’t disturb students’ main subjects,” Muklis said.

Besides school instruction, the TDMRC also attempts to educate society through a religious approach by providing training for village preachers so that they will have disaster-preparedness perspectives. They are later expected to disseminate that knowledge to the public through their sermons.

According to Muklis, Japan’s March 2011 tsunami showed that survivors of the catastrophe were those with prior knowledge of the dangers and risks of the disaster they faced. With this awareness they were capable of deciding the right things to do to save their lives and thus reduce the number of victims.

“At least we strive to minimize casualties by providing mitigation training in vulnerable areas,” he said.