As soon as he reached the main door, Edi was astonished to see so many Rover Scouts offering their services as volunteers. He saw Firman and Apriadi, his friends from the Bogor Scout Troop. The Indonesian Scout and Guides Movement was in the process of setting up an emergency camp to relieve the Indonesian Red Cross at Banda Aceh.

Edi began his training. This consisted of a mixture of exhausting physical training, health and vaccine checks, training in health care, and disaster relief.

On 3rd January, as Edi was stepping out of a military vehicle at the small airport of Banda Aceh, Agustamin welcomed him with a handshake and a warm smile. “Thank you for coming to help my people!” “They’re my people too!” said Edi. Agustamin smiled again. “Follow me, all of you!” The first fifty Scout volunteers followed Agustamin with their bicycles and their rucksacks and joined the scout camp that was five miles away.

“You’ll be working in the temporary camp set up close to the TV station. Four hundred homeless people have taken shelter there. We need you to organise meals and show people how to put up the tents.” The authorities were so impressed with the Scouts’ organisational efficiency – and the respect they earned from the homeless people in the camps - that they asked the Scouts to join a larger camp and manage the stocking and distribution of food and medicine that was arriving in chaotic plane-loads.

After two weeks’ service in Aceh, Edi resumed his life in Djakarta. “These experiences will stay with me all my life. I am proud of what we achieved in Aceh. Our team really made a difference to the lives of the people there… …and to our own lives.”