On December 26, 2004 a tsunami claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, many of those in Aceh, Indonesia. The damage in Aceh was particularly devastating where nearly a quarter of its four million people population was affected. Aceh Relief Fund (ARF) grew out of a humanitarian need to help alleviate the subsequent suffering of the Acehnese people. To commemorate the tragedy, ARF is presenting pictures taken by our team members that have never been published before. (look below)

ARF's mission is to build capacity within Aceh with the goal of empowering the Acehnese to rebuild and improve their lives. The objective is to provide emergency tsunami relief and to participate in the rebuilding effort. To date, ARF has been very successful in delivering fast and direct relief to the people in Aceh, particularly the victims in Kampong (Village) Punge Jurong (KPG) and students in schools in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh.

KPJ is one of the 34 villages in Banda Aceh listed by a United Nation agency as being completely wiped out by the tsunami. Although situated nearly five miles inland, the village could not stand the force of the tsunami. Prior to the tsunami, KPJ has around 4000 members, but now the population is numbering around 1000 only. The surviving villagers, who used to earn a living as small traders in a market in Banda Aceh are now eager to restart their life and business. ARF has been assisting them with relief supplies since after the tsunami struck, and in April 2004, officially adopt their village to be the focus for its rebuilding activities in Aceh. ARF chose KPJ because it is also the village of Saiful Mahdi, one of ARF's directors who lost 15 members of his immediate family to the tsunami which also destroyed his home.