Four years has passed since the 26 December 2004 Boxing Day that the South Asia Tsunami claimed over 200,000 lives in Indonesia alone. HOPE worldwide mobilized relief efforts within days, and still continuing bringing hope and changing the lives in the region. The Center of HOPE in Nias Island continues to provide services in health and education to the poverty-stricken yet often neglected island of 700,000 people. Our programs not only tackle relief issues but also community development for a better community.
Surti Megaria Buaya (pictured above right) is 21 years old whose parents are poor farmer with 6 children. They can not afford to send her to high school. She works hard trying to find opportunity to grab her dreams. She tried all possible ways to build the bricks of her future, and she is now doing so in the Center of HOPE in Nias Island.
Thanks to United Way International, the programs are well supported until December 2009 through tsunami funding, but we will need to start planning how to continue the efforts to build the communities in the years after. The journey is still far from completion.