With the tenth anniversary of the natural disaster falling on Friday, the Herald Sun toured the Aceh region of Indonesia, where 167,000 lost their lives.

Sinarti, a midwife at the 24- hour clinic in the capital Banda Aceh, said overseas money had made the recovery of the past decade possible.

“Thank God for international aid for help to build a new health centre bigger than before,” Sinarti said.

“The community now feels friendly and happy with countries like Australia.”

GALLERY: ACEH’S TSUNAMI RECOVERY

REBUILDING LIVES LOST IN DEADLY TSUNAMI

Sinart is a tsunami survivor who tried to leave the devastated capital and its memories but was compelled to return to help those recovering there.

Ten years ago Sinarti was working at a 24-hour medical clinic in the Aceh capital giving stitches to a patient injured before the tsunami.

She refused to leave until the stitching was complete, believing that if she helped others God would help her.

Her patient was swept away by the wave as he got on his motorbike to leave and the water carried Sinarti half a kilometre away.

Children from the local Blang Pon school. Picture: Alex Coppel Source: News Corp Australia

Her leg was severely gashed on a tin roof but she was able to grab on to a tall tree, remaining there wounded and bloody, for five hours until it was safe to let go.

Sinarti was sent to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for medical treatment. She never intended to return to Banda Aceh but relented when locals begged her.

“I never thought the health centre would be rebuilt. I never thought I would come back to Aceh,” she said.

As a CARE Australia project, a two-storey concrete clinic was built on the site of the pre-tsunami wooden one-level clinic and 135 surrounding houses.

A decade after the waves, Sinarti now sleeps upstairs and helps treat 50 patients and pregnant mothers a day at whatever hour they call.

In the inland village of Blang Pon, where CARE Australia built an entire village for survivors, lively school kids play soccer and badminton on their morning break at their newly built school.

The boys want to grow up to be, (in order of preference) soldiers, police, fruit farmers and teachers. The girls, the teachers tell us, are likely to marry, have children and not enter the workforce.

Sari’s favourite subject is English and she reads an English dictionary in her free time. She was just a baby when the waves came and remembers neither Bandah Aceh nor the horror.

She loves the lush beautiful scenery of the family’s new home in Blang Pon and the cheeky monkeys of the forest.

The Blang Pon village. Picture: Alex Coppel Source: News Corp Australia

The usually unassuming people of Aceh are effusive in their praise for countries like Australia who came to the aid of their ravaged community.

A plaque on a concrete sculpture of waves at the Aceh Thanks The World memorial park remembers the “vicious act of nature” visited on the Indonesian island. The English translation states: “Grieves and sorrows haunted the people of Aceh … Help and assistance came from volunteers, governmental and non-governmental … and the armies local, national and international.”

In another part of the park where kids play on seesaws amid market stalls a different plaque states “Our deepest gratitude to the Commonwealth of Australia. Thank You and Peace.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy Australian parents donated $380 million to tsunami relief and recovery efforts, including $40 million to CARE.

The Australian government gave $1 billion.

In the seaside village of Lampulo 465 new houses painted in pastel colours — more than half the village — have been rebuilt by CARE.

It was here the waves destroyed Nur Usman’s business (boiling, sun-drying and boning hauls of tuna as big as one tonne) and killed all 15 of the fish factory’s workers.

“We felt happy when some agencies like CARE helped to make it sustainable for us,” he said. “Without them it would have taken a much longer time to rebuild.”

Nur, who started his fishing business in 1976. when he was 20, worries there could be another tsunami but refuses to leave his village. “This is my land. I belong here,” he said.

Other help came in the form of short term business grants to get the needy back on their feet without becoming reliant on handouts.

After the tsunami local woman Ernawati made an application to CARE and was given timber to extend her roadside stall and products to sell in it.

“I thank God. Before we didn’t have anything. After that it’s come from the N.G.Os. For the daily needs it has helped,” Ernawati said.

liam.houlihan@news.com.au

Twitter: @liamhoulihan

The Herald Sun travelled with CARE Australia in Aceh. www.care.org.au/thanks