Fri, Aug 21, 2009 page3

• MORAKOT: THE AFTERMATH: Aboriginal organization drafts self-recovery plan

  • By Loa Iok-sin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Distrusting the government's recovery plan for devastated Aboriginal communities, an Aboriginal organization in Taitung yesterday drew up its own three-year plan and began asking for public donations.

  “The government is not doing much to help Aborigines in Taitung rebuild their homes after several Aboriginal communities here were hit hard by Typhoon Morakot,” Sakinu Tepiq, a pastor at a Presbyterian Church in Taitung County's Taimali Township (太麻里), told the Taipei Times during a telephone interview.

  “Even if the government does something, we're afraid that the relief efforts may not suit the needs of Aborigines,” he said.

  For example, the government is considering building a collective housing project with prefabricated houses for residents who lost their homes.

  “But Aborigines are not used to living in apartment complexes. Many of us own land, and we would prefer to rebuild our homes on our own land,” he said.

  “Hence, we hope we can draw up our own recovery plan from a local perspective and with help from local organizations,” Sakinu said.

  Sakinu and other local Aboriginal leaders have set up an organization — the Foundation for Reconstruction of Aboriginal Communities — to oversee the project.

  The foundation's short-term goal is to provide psychological counseling to typhoon survivors, so they could return to normal life as soon as possible, Sakinu said.

  As for children, after-school tutorials will be organized to help them catch up with schoolwork, with the new semester scheduled to begin at the end of the month.

  “We will need about 50 to 60 teachers, and we hope young people working in cities could return to their home villages to take these jobs,” Sakinu said, adding that similar care programs would also be created for the elderly.

  The next step is to secure a source of income for storm survivors.

  Sakinu said the survivors could become farmers, while the foundation will try to establish channels to sell their produce.

  The foundation will also talk to the government about allowing locals to use wood washed down by the raging waters onto beaches or into harbors nearby to make handicrafts, sculpture or furniture.

  “If it works out, we will sell the work for reconstruction funds,” Sakinu said.

  While Aboriginal typhoon survivors in Taitung have already mapped out their plans, more than 1,000 Aboriginal residents from Kaohsiung County's Namasiya Township, who were evacuated from their homes and have been living in shelters at the Buddhist Fo Guang Shan Monastery, are still uncertain about theirs.

  “We're not sure when we will be able to move out of the shelter into our next residence — not to mention returning to our homes in Namasiya,” said Yeh Yi-hsuan (葉一萱), a teacher from Namasiya's Sanmin Junior High School. “The government could give us subsidies for rent, or move us into prefabricated houses — it's been more than 10 days and we still don't know what will happen.”

  If they are to move into prefabricated houses, it will take the government sometime to search for a suitable location first and another month to build these houses, she said.

  Besides thinking of the future, Namasiya residents also have other problems.

  While the Buddhist monks and nuns at the monastery treat them well, the predominantly Christian Aborigines are not used to Buddhist culture.

  “They serve only vegetarian food here, which many people are not used to,” Yeh said. “Fortunately, the clergy at the monastery is nice enough to hire a catering service to cook non-vegetarian for us outside of the monastery every two days or so.”

  Another challenge to the survivors includes schooling for students living in shelters. Fortunately, several schools in Kaohsiung have agreed to allow students and teachers from Namasiya to use their idle classrooms once school starts.

  “But that means parents may have to be separated from their children,” Yeh said.
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