Nick Gentle, Banda Aceh – Out of all the countries affected by the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami, Indonesia was dealt the heaviest blows, and now the country is facing up to the most daunting rebuilding task.

A much-anticipated blueprint for the regeneration of Aceh is now being circulated among community leaders in the shattered province, to get their comments before it is approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

For those at the helm of the recovery effort, the challenges are immense. "If you consider there are 400,000 internally displaced people here, and we take a rough estimate of four people per house, that means we need to rebuild at least 100,000 homes," says Azwar Abubakar, the acting governor of Aceh province.

Last month's earthquake, which devastated the island of Nias, rubbed salt in the wounds and diverted Jakarta's attention from the wider reconstruction job.

The blueprint foresees a five-year process, with a 40 trillion rupiah ($32 billion) budget. The rehabilitation phase – primarily restoring public services – will run from April 20 to the end of next year. The reconstruction phase, in which public facilities will be rebuilt, is scheduled to begin midway through 2006.

Crucially for those wanting to move home, the document will outline if, where and how their residences will be resurrected.

The plan also provides for compensation to victims: 28 million rupiah for the destruction of a house, 10 million for a damaged one, 2 million for individual economic losses, and 15 million for losses suffered by a group.

Officials are optimistic the blueprint will be the cornerstone of the creation of a better Aceh out of the rubble of the old one. "When we rebuild Aceh using the donations of the global community," says Mr Azwar, "we hope we can make the people prosperous throughout the province, not just in the cities.

That would be very good for promoting peace as well, so you see the coin has two faces."

Before the rebuilding gets into high gear, the government as well as the International Organisation for Migration and other agencies have been erecting temporary settlements designed to house people for up to two years. "Our main priority is moving people from tents to the settlements," says Mr Azwar.

Indonesia is expected to receive by far the largest share of the more than US$7 billion pledged by the international community in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. International organisations such as the UN children's body, Unicef, have been assisting with some of the more immediate needs of the recovery, like restarting an education system reeling from the loss of almost 2,500 teachers, thousands of pupils and countless resources. "It is very important," explains Unicef spokeswoman Lely Djuhari of the need to get children studying again, "not least because it is a normalising act to get them back into the classrooms with their friends... if they have any left."

But before that can happen, every school building has to be assessed by engineers and, in a further blow to returning teachers and students, sometimes torn down.

The Asian Development Bank has estimated that more than 2,000 educational institutions of all levels were damaged throughout Aceh and the west coast of Sumatra, at a total cost of 1.03 trillion rupiah.

In the longer term, Unicef, which also has responsibility for child protection issues in the disaster area, will be training teachers and other personnel in how to spot, and intervene in, cases of delayed trauma and domestic violence.

"The danger of domestic violence is very real," Ms Djuhari says. "Especially when you have a lot of people living in close proximity in the camps and there is not much for them to do."

Getting the population back to work and, where possible, out of the camps so those sorts of conditions do not prevail is another priority for those steering the reconstruction.

One of the primary methods being utilised is the use of work programmes, which operate at a village level and put money directly into the pockets of local residents involved in reconstruction projects. "The village leaders come to us with ideas for projects," says Oxfam spokesman Kim Tan, "and we see what we can do for them."

More than 10,000 people were expected to have been paid through such programmes by the end of last month. "It gets the people out of this mentality of dependance that is one of the most destructive features of the camp environment... and it really kicks into the local economy," Mr Tan says.

But, according to the secretary-general of the Indonesian Department of Public Works, Budiman, a number of villages will not be rebuilt. In some cases there are just not enough survivors.

"Some of these areas are not going to be able to be used again, but these people are very close to their land. This is why we are working very closely with universities and local leaders to find a way of dealing with this issue," says Mr Budiman. "Building a consensus is not easy. We cannot please everyone, but these problems can and will be solved equitably."