Jonathan Dart – The task of rebuilding Aceh after the war and the tsunami has changed the role traditionally played by women.
Groups such as the International Organization for Migration and JARI Aceh have coopted women into learning new skills and starting their own enterprises.
In November 2005, the IOM launched the Women's Cooperative program, which has so far attracted 2,000 members.
For a small joining fee, the women work in groups of at least 10 to establish small business enterprises, such as rice farming, and initiate a mandatory savings program.
Known as kopwan (short for kooperasi wanita, or women's cooperatives), the women are also able to apply for small loans, starting at an amount of Rp 500,000, which is roughly equivalent to three weeks' wages in the province.
Based on micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, the kopwan have been a stunning success: the repayment rate is currently 99 percent and many groups have begun to take on larger loans.
Meanwhile, JADI Aceh has spent the past six years working with a group of more than 200 women whose husbands were killed in the struggle, giving them training and educational scholarships.
Women's roles during the separatist struggle have also been recognized. They compromise a third of the 3,000 GAM fighters who are entitled to rehabilitation assistance beginning this month, as stipulated under the memorandum of understanding.
The Harvard School of Medicine and University Syiah Kuala study on the effects of the conflict found that 73 percent of women had experienced combat, and 25 percent were forced to give food or shelter to either the Indonesian Army or GAM.
"The situation is similar to that of post-World War II Europe or North America," said Paul Dillon.
"You've got a situation where large numbers of women were used outside their traditional roles to conduct the war, and when it was all over they didn't want to simply return to their previous lives."
"In terms of capacity-building, the research also shows that women are a lot more responsible when it comes to running small enterprises, saving money and repaying loans."