Anak Hilang Akibat Tsunami Aceh Kembali pada Keluarganya

Girl Swept from Her Parents in Tsunami is Reunited with Her Family

Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi


Anak Hilang Akibat Tsunami Aceh Kembali pada Keluarganya
Raudhatul Jannah (tengah) bersama ibunya, Jamaliah (kiri) dan neneknya (Foto2: MailOnline)

SEORANG gadis Indonesia bersatu kembali dengan keluarganya setelah 10 tahun terpisah lantaran tsunami pada 2004, kata ibunya.

Raudhatul Jannah masih berusia empat tahun dan kakaknya usia tujuh tahun terpisah dari orang tua mereka setelah terapung pada sepotong kayu yang mengambang setelah Aceh dihantam tsunami, ketika menghantam kampung halaman mereka di Aceh Barat pada 26 Desember 2004, yang dilaporkan DPA seperti dilansir MailOnline.

Ibu Jannah, Jamaliah, 42, dan suaminya selamat dan berupaya mencari kedua anak mereka, tetapi berhenti setelah satu bulan, dengan asumsi kedua anak mereka tewas dalam bencana tsunami.

Pada bulan Juni, saudara lelaki Jamaliah melihat seorang gadis yang memiliki kemiripan dengan  Jannah tengah berjalan pulang dari sekolah dan membuatnya penasaran tentang gadis tersebut.

Ia menyadari bahwa keponakannya menjadi korban tsunami yang melanda kawasan terpencil di barat daya Aceh pada 2004.

Sang anak ternyata diselamatkan oleh nelayan dan dirawat oleh ibu sang nelayan, kini seorang wanita tua, yang memberinya nama Weni dan membesarkannya sejak itu.

Jamaliah dan suaminya mengunjungi sang gadis di pedalaman Blangpidie di Kabupaten Aceh Barat Daya pada akhir Juni dan menemukan itu adalah putri mereka.

"Suami saya dan saya sangat bahagia. Saya sangat bersyukur kepada Tuhan karena mempertemukan dengan anak kami setelah 10 tahun berpisah," kata Jamaliah.

'Jantungku berdetak begitu cepat ketika saya  melihatnya. Saya memeluknya dan dia memeluk saya kembali dan merasa begitu nyaman dalam pelukanku, "katanya.

Jamaliah juga mengaku dia tidak berhenti 'menangis' saat bertemu anaknya yang hilang.

Jannah bertemu kembali dengan keluarganya pada Rabu dan kembali ke kampung halamannya.

'Suami saya dan saya sangat senang kami berkumpul kembali. Ini adalah keajaiban dari Tuhan," kata Jamaliah kepada DPA melalui telepon dari Meulaboh, kota di Aceh Barat.

Jamaliah mengatakan dia bersedia untuk mengambil tes DNA untuk membuktikan gadis itu anaknya, tapi dia tidak ragu gadis itu putrinya, mengakui itu anaknya begitu dia melihatnya.

"Jika ada yang ragu, saya siap untuk tes DNA," kata dia kepada DPA.

Jamaliah mengatakan kepada surat kabar Indonesia, Harian Terbit, dia sangat yakin bahwa Weni, karena itulah namanya saat ditemuinya, adalah anaknya karena ciri khas di wajahnya yang sangat dikenalnya, meskipun Jamaliah mengakui warna kulit Jannah anaknya yang dulu hilang berubah, karena ia bekerja di bawah terik matahari membantu ibu angkatnya mengumpulkan kerang.

Surat kabar itu melaporkan bahwa Jannah adalah gadis 'ceria' tapi tidak banyak bicara dan mencatat bahwa meskipun berusia 14 tahun Jannah masih duduk di kelas empat karena kesulitan belajar lantaran trauma tsunami.

Keluarga yang terpisah akibat tragedi tsunami. Ketika mereka berpegangan pada kayu yang mengapung, tapi dua anak pasangan itu, Jannah dan kakaknya yang berusia tujuh tahun terlepas dari genggaman orang tua mereka.

Hal ini bisa dimengerti ketika pasangan memiliki anak lain, bernama Azhari, yang selamat setelah dilanda tsunami.

Orang tua pindah dari Aceh setahun setelah tsunami karena properti mereka dihancurkan, seperti dilaporkan Harian Terbit.

Jannah mengatakan kepada ibunya, dia dan kakaknya, Arif Pratama Rangkuti, selamat dan terdampar di Pulau Banyak, tapi keberadaannya belum diketahui.

Keluarga yang berbahagia ini akan melakukan perjalanan ke pulau jarang penghuni sekitar 40 km lepas pantai untuk mencari anak mereka, yang kini berusia 17 tahun.

Tsunami di Samudera Hindia dipicu oleh gempa bumi di lepas pantai Sumatera, menewaskan 230 ribu orang di 14 negara, termasuk 170 ribu orang tewas di Aceh.

AN INDONESIAN girl has been reunited with her family 10 years after she was swept away by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, her mother claims.

Four-year-old Raudhatul Jannah and her seven-year-old brother were separated from their parents while holding onto a floating piece of wood in the tsunami waters, when it hit her West Aceh home on December 26, 2004, reported DPA.

Jannah's mother Jamaliah, 42, and her husband survived and searched for their children, but stopped after one month, assuming the children had died in the devastating tsunami.

In June, Jamaliah's brother spotted a girl who bore a resemblance to Jannah walking home from school and made inquiries about her.

He discovered that she had been swept from Aceh in the 2004 tsunami to remote islands southwest of the province.

The girl was rescued by a fisherman and brought back to the fisherman's mother, now an elderly woman, who named the girl Weni and raised her.

Jamaliah and her husband visited the girl in the inland town of Blangpidie in the Aceh Barat Daya district in late June and found she was their daughter.

'My husband and I are very happy. I am so grateful to God for reuniting us with our child after 10 years of being separated,' said Jamaliah.

'My heart beat so fast when I saw her. I hugged her and she hugged me back and felt so comfortable in my arms,' she said.

Jamaliah also said she could not stop the 'tears from flowing' during the reunion.

Jannah was reunited with her family on Wednesday and returned to her hometown.

'My husband and I are very happy we have found her. This is a miracle from God,' Jamaliah told DPA by telephone from Meulaboh, the main town in West Aceh.

Jamaliah said she was willing to take a DNA test to prove the girl was her daughter, but that she had no doubt the girl was hers, recognising her as soon as she saw her.

'If anyone is in doubt, I'm ready for DNA tests,' she told DPA.

Jamaliah told Indonesian newspaper Harian Terbit she was very confident that Weni, as she is now known, is her child because of her characteristic facial features, though Jamaliah says Jannah's skin colour has changed, because she has been working in the sun helping her foster mother collect shells.

The newspaper reported that Jannah is 'cheerful' but does not talk much and noted that although she is 14 years old Jannah is in fourth grade because of learning difficulties resulting from the trauma of the tsunami.

The family were torn apart when the tsunami hit their house. They clung to a floating plank of wood through the tsunami waters, but two of the couple's children, Jannah and her seven-year-old brother slipped from their parents' grasp.

It is understood the couple has another child, named Azhari, who was not separated from them during the tsunami.

The parents moved from Aceh a year after the tsunami because their property had been destroyed, Harian Terbit reported.

Jannah told her mother she and her brother, Arif Pratama Rangkuti, survived and were stranded on Banyak Island, but his whereabouts are unknown.

The family are going to travel to the sparsely inhabited island 40 km off the coast  to look for their son, who would now be 17.

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean was triggered by an earthquake off Sumatra, killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, including 170,000 in Aceh.