The Operation Blessing brick factory employs 35 people in the community of Rigah, Indonesia.

Each month, employees produce an average of 100,000 bricks to be used for rebuilding homes and businesses destroyed by the 2004 tsunami.

RIGAH, Indonesia - With the ease of a master baker, Arina sloughs off a portion of 'dough,' kneads it, dusts her cutting board with 'flour,' and drops the dough into a rectangular cookie cutter frame.

In one sweeping pass using a bow-like tool, she removes the excess from the top, lifts the cutter and carefully places her loaf - thin side up - in line with the others.

This is not your typical bakery. The dough is in fact, clay; the flour, fine sand; and the final product a non-edible ruddy-colored brick that is helping to create new houses for hundreds living in refugee camps and temporary shelters in post-tsunami Indonesia.

This is Operation Blessing's brick factory in Rigah, Indonesia, and Arina is one of the factory's 35 employees.

She's only been there two months, but already Arina is averaging 300 bricks a day.

The more seasoned 'bakers' can make anywhere from 500-600 bricks per day or roughly one brick every 30 seconds.

"It was a little difficult to learn at first," she said. "But I like it."

Her sister, Ruzaimah, looks on and smiles with approval.

She and her husband, Zakaria, owned a brick factory for one year until it was destroyed by the 2005 tsunami.

After four months of unemployment, she met two Operation Blessing staff members who invited the couple to come work at the factory.

"I learned how to make bricks from other people - how to mix the mud and soil, fire the bricks - step by step - how to make a good brick," she said.

And not only are they making good bricks, they're churning them out in mass quantity.

"We have grown from four to fifteen tables and are now producing an average of 100,000 bricks a month," Ruzaimah said.

That's 100,000 bricks each month that are being used to rebuild homes and businesses destroyed by the tsunami.

"I like my job very much," she said.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

 

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