Bukit Lawang

Literally meaning "door to the hills", Bukit Lawang is a small village situated 90 kilometers northwest of Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The focal point of village life here is the river running through the heart of it. In November 2003 in the late evening, a massive flood hit the village and killed at least 300 people. Described by witnesses as a tidal wave, the water was approximately 10 meters high, as it came crashing down the hills, wiping out everything in its path.

Although illegal logging in the area was initially blamed for the flood, the cause is not known, and many also believe this was just a natural disaster, Mother Nature’s way of revitalising the land. The village is on the edge of the magnificent Gunung Leuser National Park, which is an area of dense rainforest and home to the rare Sumatran orang-utans, as well as the Sumatran tiger and elephant, although sightings of these are also very rare. The people here live basically and the river is still where the women wash clothes, the men fish and the children play all day.

For many the trauma of losing family, friends and their homes has taken a long time to come to terms with, and after the tsunami and earthquake, many have been further affected due to having family and friends in nearby Ache. The people face unemployment, and homelessness. It has been a long road to recovery, and an expecially hard task to rebuild a town without financial assistance. The new village is now taking shape, as the people here are resourceful, salvaging what they can, however many are still homeless, and their health is suffering due to poor sanitation.

Since the charity was set up and registered in 2004, volunteers have raised thousands in funds, enabling us to buy rice and basic staple foods to feed the hundreds of families who were living in the bus station. We originally set up a small temporary health clinic, renting and refurbishing a building, and employing locals to renovate and employing a doctor, nurse, midwife and a manager. The clinic was run from this small house for two years, seeing more than twenty patients a day for free.

We have provided the village with water carriers, purifying tablets, sleeping mats, compost loos and educational materials. We have also held environmental education workshops where people learn about which materials are recyclable (plastic waste is a big problem) and the importance of protecting the jungle.

In March 2007 sixteen volunteers from Jersey travelled to Sumatra to build the new health clinic, which is now a permanent home for the Trust. The administrator, doctor, nurse and mid-wife moved into the new clinic in December 2007 and the clinic opened its doors in January 2008. A cleaner and new mid-wife and doctor have joined the team, and the plan is for the clinic to be open twenty four hours a day. The Trust eventually hopes to have ultra-sound facilities for new mothers and an ambulance running to pick people up from the surrounding areas who are too sick to be able to get to the clinic by public transport.