Resident-initiated modification to reconstruction housing in Banda Aceh

The scale of devastation caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was extraordinary. In excess of 160,000 Indonesians were killed and 500,000 made homeless in Aceh Province. In the days and weeks following the disaster people from around the world united to provide support - more than seven billion US dollars were pledged for both long and short-term reconstruction projects in all affected countries. A significant proportion of this funding was allocated to the construction of new houses in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. In the following years more than 100,000 new houses were built by many hundreds of international and Indonesian non-government organizations (NGOs).