A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – A year after the tsunami, signs of recovery are evident among Acehnese children, but many challenges remain, a UN body has said. Many children are not going to school, still suffering from trauma and boredom, and living in tents and barracks, all of which require urgent attention, said Lely Jauhari, spokeswoman of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Banda Aceh.

"The relief effort was a success immediately after the tsunami. Most of the children got food, water and shelter, and no major outbreaks of communicable disease were reported. But, problems remain a year after," Lely told The Jakarta Post on Thursday afternoon.

Figures from the Aceh Statistics Agency show that a total of 63,069 children between seven and 15, or 8 percent of a total of 767,044 children in this age group, are still not going to school. Given this situation, education is now one of UNICEF's chief concerns, said Lely.

UNICEF has donated vast quantities of textbooks and school essentials to children, and has recruited, trained and deployed over 1,000 emergency primary teachers in 12 districts, paying their salaries for six months. But, rebuilding the schools destroyed by the tsunami is a major challenge.

Bureaucracy and population displacement are blamed for the slow pace of school rebuilding with only one permanent school building having been constructed by the UN body in Aceh so far.

"Building a school is not a piece of cake. Before kicking of reconstruction, we have to report to the Aceh rehabilitation agency (BRR) and the local government. But the process takes a lot of time. In one case, we sought permits to rebuild schools in one area, but suddenly other parties had already built the schools there so that our request was turned down," said Lely.

In another case, a plan to rebuild a school had to be aborted due to a lack of electricity and a water supply.

In addition, people are still coming into the affected areas for economic and other reasons, which made it difficult for UNICEF to identify which areas actually need schools, said Lely.

"In order to overcome the various problems, we have set up 135 temporary schools in selected areas of Aceh since May 26," said Lely. The temporary schools are important in that they not only provide children with education but also attract parents to settle in the respective areas, said Lely.

Meanwhile, in order to address the trauma experienced by children, UNICEF has been working with local government and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

UNICEF provides funding and training while the NGOs and local government recruit and deployed social workers to help the children overcome their trauma. UNICEF has also set up children's centers around Aceh.

"Children, especially those living in tents and barracks, do not need professional psychologists. They need someone they can trust and these people should come from their own community," said Lely.

The BRR has estimated that at least 67,500 people, including children, are still living in tents since the tsunami.