ACEH TAMIANG — “I am very happy. Thanks to the temporary housing provided by Dompet Dhuafa, my family has a new lease on life. This housing has been a great help. I can’t imagine that we used to live in tents, but now we have a nice house. There are walls and a roof, so no more dust gets in. When it rains, we no longer worry about getting wet. And when it’s hot, we no longer feel the heat,” said Sulaiman (43), one of the flood survivors in Aceh Tamiang.
The massive flood in Aceh Tamiang destroyed many residents’ homes. After the flood receded, they immediately set up simple shelters using tarpaulins, rusty zinc sheets, and rotten wood as supports. They built these ‘temporary homes’ on the side of the road amid endless clouds of dust.
Seeing this situation, Dompet Dhuafa provided Temporary Houses (Rumtara) which were built on Monday (1/5/2026). Sulaiman, a resident of Karang Baru, Aceh Tamiang, cried with joy upon hearing the news about the Rumtara program. He was grateful that the difficult conditions of living in tents would soon come to an end.
At the Dompet Dhuafa shelter, Sulaiman lives with his mother and son. He admits that he cannot wait to pick up his wife, daughter, and baby to join him at the Dompet Dhuafa shelter.
“My second child in Seruway cannot wait to see his new home. He said on the phone, ‘Dad, I want to come home. I want to live in a new house, Dad’. I also miss my wife and baby. We haven’t seen each other for a month. I want to be able to return to this new house as soon as possible. Thank you very much, Dompet Dhuafa, for providing this decent house,” he explained.
Previously, one day before the flash flood occurred, Sulaiman said that he was helping to evacuate merchandise from his neighbor’s shop. That night, water as high as an adult’s knees began to flood the store area. Sulaiman said that Aceh Tamiang had been hit by heavy rain for more than four consecutive days. Several areas were already flooded.
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Sulaiman, who works at a motorcycle repair shop, saw the water level rising rapidly. At 10 p.m., when the water had reached his waist, he decided to return home. He was worried about his wife and two children. He feared that the flash flood that had hit Aceh Tamiang in 2006 would happen again.
Arriving home, Sulaiman quickly packed clothes, his children’s school certificates, and the remaining rice in the kitchen. He carried his wife, who was still in pain from her cesarean section a few days earlier, onto his moped. In the rain, he took his two children and his wife to the hospital to pick up their newborn baby.
Sulaiman’s third child was born on November 20, 2025, four or five days before the disaster struck Aceh Tamiang. Due to certain conditions, the child had to remain in the hospital, while his wife was recovering from surgery at home. This is what caused him and his youngest child to be separated.
At the hospital in Karang Baru District, he asked the nurses to secure his family on the second floor. He explained that several areas in Karang Baru had already begun to flood.
“My family and I, as well as the patients on the first floor, were taken to the second floor. The first floor was already empty. The water was already rising a few meters from the hospital,” said Sulaiman.
On Friday at 2 a.m., a torrential flood hit the Karang Baru area. The roar of the water was loud, accompanied by the panicked screams of people. All buildings were hit, and the situation became even more tense when darkness fell due to a power outage.
“It was like a tsunami. The water was huge,” said Sulaiman.
For a week, Sulaiman was trapped on the second floor of the Aceh Tamiang Regional General Hospital because the floodwaters did not recede. He ate and drank from the supplies left in the hospital. Together with other patients and their families, they shared supplies to survive. When the water finally receded and there was no more rain, Sulaiman decided to leave the hospital.
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Sulaiman recounted his return to his village in Dusun Bahagia, Desa Dalam, Kecamatan Karang Baru, Aceh Tamiang. He and his eldest child pushed a hospital bed carrying his wife and baby. They struggled through the thick mud that covered the roads.
Upon arriving at the village, he witnessed the ruins of his destroyed home. There, he saw only scattered debris of the building. The sight brought tears to his eyes.
“We no longer have a place to live. Our house is gone. Where should I take my baby? Where will my children sleep?” said Sulaiman as he recalled the image of his house in ruins.
Due to the flash flood disaster, Sulaiman and his family were forced to live in a hut that he built on the side of the highway. Together with his wife, his sick mother, and his three children, they survived in a place that was far from comfortable.
He relied on the kindness of passing motorists for food, drink, and other supplies, such as blankets and lighting.
“After the flood receded, we searched for used items around our destroyed house. Things like tarpaulins, leaky zinc sheets, and poles that we could use. And with those items, we made a makeshift tent,” said Sulaiman.
Sulaiman and his family lived in a makeshift tent for more than a month. He endured many hardships while there. The roads were dusty when it was hot and muddy when it rained, which made him wince. He couldn’t bear to see his sick mother and his infant child, who was not even a year old, having to endure such difficult conditions.
“We used plastic sheets to block the dust. But it was useless. The dust still got in. So I asked my friend in Seruway Subdistrict to take in my wife and baby. The conditions there are better than here,” he concluded.
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For your information, all aid from Sahabat Dompet Dhuafa for Aceh and Sumatra continues to be distributed. As of January 12, 2026, the total number of beneficiaries has reached 138 thousand people. All of this aid is distributed through various response actions such as Temporary Houses (Rumtara), fogging services, victim evacuation, basic necessities, public kitchen services, wifi and charger posts, clean water distribution, baby and elderly needs, and many others.
Friends, Sulaiman’s story is just one of many heartbreaking tales of disaster survivors in Aceh Tamiang. There are still many concerning conditions where people are still struggling to recover post-disaster. For this reason, Dompet Dhuafa continues to invite all elements of society to collaborate in rebuilding and restoring the three provinces affected by floods and landslides through digital.dompetdhuafa.org/donasi/bangkitsumatera.
Text and photos: M Afriza Adha, DMC, M Reynaldi Risahondua
Editor: Dhika