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This is Rattmawati. She lost her home in the tsunami but is hopeful for a brighter future for her children.

Rattmawati lives in a new house rebuilt for her by CRS with support from Caritas Australia, on her original block of land in Pucok Luong village. This village is not located directly by the sea, and traditionally people from this village have worked as farmers in nearby paddy fields and rubber plantations.

Pucok Luong suffered substantial damage in the tsunami, with the majority of houses destroyed and possessions lost. More lives were saved here however, because after the earthquake they ran to higher ground. Rattmawati was at home when the earthquake struck, she escaped with her children because “people were out in the road screaming for everyone to run.”

After living in army barracks as temporary shelter for nearly two years, Rattmawati is very happy to have her new house “it was difficult in the barracks because everyone was thrown in together there together and it was hard to sleep from all the noise. I am so happy to have my house now so I don’t have to worry anymore about where I will live.”

In Pucok Luong people work on paddy fields or in plantations for long hours and earn little money. Education is also not readily available. Now that people in the village have new houses, the biggest challenge for them is financial security and opportunities for the future. For Rattmawati, who has no source of income since he husband left, her hope for the future is “that I can send my children to school. That I can educate them so they can have a better life.”