Program Update
Date: December 2006

FBA has assisted 453 businesses under revolving fund program in four districts: Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Pidie and Aceh Jaya covering 36 sub-districts in Aceh. Out of 245 businesses, 106 are run by women.

To ensure ease of access to the people from the grass root level, we have recruited 13 local motivators (LM). They have been trained and equipped with basic understanding of monitoring and evaluation knowledge. They will be fully responsible to refer business candidates to FBA and monitor the progress of businesses located in their working areas.

50 hectares rice field has been restored in Pulo Aceh Island, Aceh Besar. People, mostly from Rabo Village are planting rice in their village and Riyeung Village people will follow the activities soon.

Rice field in Pulo Aceh Sub District, an Island located in Aceh Besar has been restored to better normalcy by FBA

10 tsunami orphans from Lampoh Daya, Banda Aceh village were sponsored.

FBA has put a grounding stone as a mark of construction of Community Center and FBA office in Emperom Village, Banda Aceh.

The story of Ibu Ruhana: She had been struggling to find donation to restart her business for a long time. She had run the same business even years before the tsunami destroyed her family and business. She completely lost everything she had. With IDR 7,000,000 (USD780) supported by FBA, she has been able to restart her business since July 2006. Now, she can make IDR 500,000 (USD 65) a month. This amount of money is already more than enough for her. She has a dream that she will rebuild her livelihood much better than her life before the tsunami. She is 50 years old now, but she still has a strong spirit to restore her life to make it better.

To increase the quality of service to the community, again from 15th to 17th of December all FBA staff and Local Motivators have been trained in a team building and management training in Tekengon, Aceh.