We recently went on a monitoring visit to Banda Aceh, Indonesia to understand the progress of the post-relief projects done by Mercy Relief and their local partners since 2015.

The women empowerment programme Resilient Aceh has been going well for the salt farmers. The ladies joined the credit scheme called Credit Union Mudah Rezeki (MUKI). The programme taught the women how to manage their savings and financial management and also provide loans at a minimal rate of 1% compared to bank rate of 6 to 9%. This programme is developed to help increase overall resilience of the community in Lancang Paru through increase in economic security and disaster preparedness strategies. There are 107 salt farmer households out of 400 households at Lancang Paru Village and all of them joined the union even though the initial target was only 85.

This programme is developed by Mercy Relief and Yayasan PKPA and has benefited the families involved.