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Center for Rebuilding Sustainable
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CPCS Dean Adenrele Awotona, left, with delegation from Indonesia: Dr. Tutty Alawiyah, Dr. Ferdy Firdaus, and Dr. Dewi Motik Pramono. (Click for larger image) |
A high level delegation from Indonesia visited the College on February 29, 2008 to discuss the rebuilding following the devastating 2004 tsunami that struck Aceh and to discuss future cooperation. The delegation included:
During the visit, arranged by CPCS Dean Adenrele Awotona, possible areas of collaboration between the two universities were discussed, including:
The visit also included a public presentation by Firdaus and Alawiyah, titled “Rebuilding Sustainable Communities for Children Orphaned by the Asian Tsunami in Indonesia.”
“I am indeed very pleased that during the visit, the University
of Massachusetts Boston and the University of As-Syafi`iyah will be signing
a Memorandum of Understanding,” said CPCS Dean Adenrele Awotona. “This
will provide a unique opportunity for the faculty at UMass Boston to work
collaboratively with their counterparts in Indonesia to develop programs
that will assist the survivors of the December 26, 2004 tsunami to rebuild
their communities in a sustainable and holistic manner. It will also encourage
the exchange of faculty and students; promote the development of specialized
exchange study programs at both sites; advance cooperative academic research
initiatives; specify mechanisms for jointly organizing workshops and conferences
on rebuilding sustainable communities for children and their families post-tsunami;
and support the exchange and sharing of teaching and academic research
related information and materials.”
In particular, UMass Boston’s Center
for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters will seek to
work closely with Indonesia’s leaders,
non-governmental organizations, researchers, and grassroots
associations in the longer term reconstruction process.
This will be done within the context of the government
of Indonesia’s
comprehensive strategy which was developed to guide the
reconstruction process. The five central objectives of
the strategy are restoring people’s
lives, restoring the economy, restoring livelihoods in
communities, rebuilding local governance, and government,
and designing a regional development plan.
The 2004 tsunami was the worst natural disaster in the
history of Indonesia, causing heavy loss of life and great destruction
in Aceh. It killed over 110,000 people (including 45,000 students and 1,870
teachers), internally displaced an estimated 700,000 persons in 95 locations
(including at least 100,000 children), orphaned many, destroyed or damaged
1,962 schools in Aceh, and rendered 20 percent of the Acehnese population
homeless. Total damage from the tsunami was estimated at between $4.5 and
$5 billion.
According to a technical report which was prepared by
Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency and the International
donor community in January 2005, “the sectors most impacted were
primarily private-sector dominated assets and activities
that relate directly to the personal livelihoods of the
affected urban and rural communities: housing, commerce, agriculture, and
fisheries, and transport vehicles and services ($2.8 billion, or 63% of
total damage and losses).” The
report also noted that “the biggest public sector damages were to
infrastructure, the social sectors, and government administration
($1.1 billion, or 25% of total damage and losses). Monetized
environmental damages are also significant ($0.55 billion, or 12% of total
damage and losses).”
The conference, which is being organized by the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters, will run from November 16 through 19, 2008, and is designed to build on last July’s highly-successful “Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq” conference, but with a worldwide focus on helping those affected by both man-made and natural disasters. For more information, go to www.cpcs.umb.edu/rsccfd.
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Michelle Tracchia, a member of the UMass Boston Undergraduate Student Senate, Vice President of the Model United Nations Club, and Research Recruiter for the Honors magazine LUX, attended the presentation and was so impressed that she now hopes to use her summer working with Dr. Alawiyah at her orphanage. READ MORE>>
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