Green Camp is a Local Acehnese NGO comprising a group of educated young Acehnese who joined forces immediately after the cataclysmic tsunami. Many of the groups members were homeless and had lost much of their families. Their common bond prior to the tsunami was an interest in and commitment to the environment. Many of these dedicated Acehnese had been working in environmental NGOs and as adventure tour guides.

After the tsunami they joined together and created in informal association they called Green Camp. Because of their experience trekking and exploring the more remote areas of Aceh, they shared a comprehensive local knowledge of the coastal and mountain regions and the many isolated communities that lived throughout the area. The Green Camp team began to penetrate the tsunami zone on foot, bicycles and borrowed motorbikes, gathering and sharing information among survivors. Using forest tracks and skill, they picked their way through dangerous areas of debris. In many cases they were the first outsiders to visit devastated communities. The assessed those communities needs, and the next step was to try and find sources for support for these isolated people.

The Green Camp team worked tirelessly to try and match up international non-government organizations (INGOs) that were beginning to arrive with emergency support and medical supplies with the communities that most urgently needed help. They were able to guide aid workers to remote and forgotten areas that had not yet received the help needed. Because all the roads and bridges along the coast had been destroyed, Green camp played a very valuable role in assisting the INGOs in effective aid distribution.

IDEP volunteers met up with Green Camp early in January and were impressed by the groups ability to get help to where it was most needed in unbelievably trying circumstances. Green Camp, which until this time had been an informal association of caring local citizens had proved itself to be an invaluable partner on the ground and so to ensure that Green Camp would be able to receive ongoing funding support from the many international agencies now stationed in the region, IDEP assisted the group to complete the legal processes of becoming a registered local Non Government Organization (Yayasan).

The Green Camp team were instrumental in assisting IDEP in identifying and surveying a suitable location and setting the foundation for the establishment of the GreenHand Field School Program. The project is now well underway with a clear MOU cementing the long-term relationship between IDEP and Green Camp for this ongoing program.

The GreenHand Filed School is a live-in model organic farming and training centre located in Lamsujen, about 50 km south of Banda Aceh which teaches techniques for food security and environmental management. Several Green Camp team members are undergoing training as trainers at the center, so that they can go on to teach these skills for sustainable development to other Acehnese tsunami survivors and local communities.

See http://www.idepfoundation.org/GFS.html for more information about this integrated Aceh recovery program.