Catholic Church builds houses, aids survivors of tsunami in Indonesia

Published: 2005-12-28

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) -- A year after the tsunami disaster, the Catholic Church continues to construct thousands of houses for people in Indonesia's Aceh province, where almost all the people are Muslim. "Medan Archdiocese is building schools and a center for people with leprosy, developing vocational schools and running rehabilitation programs for affected people in several parts of Aceh," said Coadjutor Archbishop Anicetus Sinaga of Medan. The Catholic Church continues to help reconstruct and rehabilitate tsunami victims in Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, and on Nias, a smaller island off Sumatra's western coast, the archbishop told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Aceh was hit the hardest by the undersea earthquake Dec. 26, 2004, and the resulting tsunamis, which slammed coastal areas of a dozen countries from Thailand to East Africa.

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