Dayah Babulilmi orphanage boarding school in Sigli, Aceh

We arrived in Banda Aceh at 10:30 a.m. Dayah Babulilmi is located in Sigli, south of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh. It took us about 4 hours to reach Dayah Babulilmi, orphanage-boarding school.

Dayah Babulilmi' condition is far worse than I imagined. I was mesmerized by the dire condition I saw here. This dayah's condition is already very poor to begin with. Following tsunami, they had an influx of 55 children to the dorm. A room (of 3 meters x 4 meters) is occupied by 8 students. Each dorm has cement floors and roofed with dried leaves. No bunk beds or mattress to sleep on (only straw mats); no bathroom or sanitary system (they have to go to river to bath). Most of all, some of these students can't afford going back to school. They cannot afford tuition (for kindergarten) of Rp 1000 per month (equivalent to $0.15, some of them can't even afford fifteen cents per month!!!).

As a result of that, they did not go to school. They just stayed at a dorm, and learn and read the Holy Quran.

The Dayah has 472 children, only 106 are live-in children, 55 of them are tsunami survivors. Most of the children live outside Dayah; they attend Quran study classes at Dayah Babulilmi.



Ina Nasution