Our Founder
A journey of a thousands miles begins with a single step. This proverb truly helped motivate me to do something to help myself, my family and my homeland of Aceh when in December 2004, the tsunami destroyed everything dear to me.
I felt like I had lost everything in my life. It was hard to believe what I saw: There was nothing left after the tsunami. More than 200,000 people lost their lives. We lost beloved parents, brothers, sisters and friends. How were we to start life again? From almost nothing, from rubble? Thousands people with no place to stay, not enough food to eat and water to live. I felt hopeless. I didn’t know what to do.
That day, wandering helplessly, I found myself standing at the corner of the Banda Aceh Baiturahman Great Mosque. Watching the many dead bodies and the people walking without hope amongst them, I cried, I still didn’t know what happened to my family.
After a couple of hours wandering helplessly around the Great Mosque, I pushed myself to keep searching for my family. I could only pray that they were alright. Nevertheless, I kept thinking of what I could possibly do to rebuild my homeland and my people’s lives. Then, I remembered the saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and I realized that I couldn’t do everything at once for my family, for Aceh and all tsunami survivors. I knew I must not be deterred by the immensity of the task at hand, that I must do what I can.
This principle has driven me to always do something, however small, because it can make a significant difference in our life and the lives of others. Tsunami survivors need quick and immediate help; so even the smallest help can save their life. But how? Then an idea comes, if one person can help one tsunami victim, more survivors will be able to recover their life as soon as possible. This principle which we would later call "People-to-People", I found was suited to deliver quick, thus life-saving, emergency aid.
I realized I was not alone to make this dream comes true. Many friends, particularly other young Acehnese tsunami survivors joined the Forum Ba-ngun Aceh (FBA) to work and volunteer, and expressed the same commitment to do something however small but make a significant difference. The FBA has benefitted from strong support for our People-to-People initiative approach, and has now expanded to a Community-to-Community program.
I felt like I had lost everything in my life. It was hard to believe what I saw: There was nothing left after the tsunami. More than 200,000 people lost their lives. We lost beloved parents, brothers, sisters and friends. How were we to start life again? From almost nothing, from rubble? Thousands people with no place to stay, not enough food to eat and water to live. I felt hopeless. I didn’t know what to do.
That day, wandering helplessly, I found myself standing at the corner of the Banda Aceh Baiturahman Great Mosque. Watching the many dead bodies and the people walking without hope amongst them, I cried, I still didn’t know what happened to my family.
After a couple of hours wandering helplessly around the Great Mosque, I pushed myself to keep searching for my family. I could only pray that they were alright. Nevertheless, I kept thinking of what I could possibly do to rebuild my homeland and my people’s lives. Then, I remembered the saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and I realized that I couldn’t do everything at once for my family, for Aceh and all tsunami survivors. I knew I must not be deterred by the immensity of the task at hand, that I must do what I can.
This principle has driven me to always do something, however small, because it can make a significant difference in our life and the lives of others. Tsunami survivors need quick and immediate help; so even the smallest help can save their life. But how? Then an idea comes, if one person can help one tsunami victim, more survivors will be able to recover their life as soon as possible. This principle which we would later call "People-to-People", I found was suited to deliver quick, thus life-saving, emergency aid.
I realized I was not alone to make this dream comes true. Many friends, particularly other young Acehnese tsunami survivors joined the Forum Ba-ngun Aceh (FBA) to work and volunteer, and expressed the same commitment to do something however small but make a significant difference. The FBA has benefitted from strong support for our People-to-People initiative approach, and has now expanded to a Community-to-Community program.
