Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.
By Carly Flynn
Two years ago a magnitude 8 earthquake and tsunami struck the heart of the Solomon Islands, flattening townships and killing 52 people.
Some places are still abandoned, their residents too scared to return.
Unicef is helping residents of the village of Titiana put the trauma behind them.
Playing in the mud and among the ruins has become normal for the children of Titiana. More than two years on, the evidence of what happened here is still clear.
For example, an elderly woman's walker marks her grave - her lack of mobility made her powerless to escape the waves.
"Some places where the tsunami hit there was nothing left, which was shocking in itself," says David Kaunitz, Emergency Architects Australia, "but here there were concrete buildings such as the church that'd just been absolutely torn to shreds. Just twisted steel and concrete, cars in trees, homes picked up, travelled 70m from where they were just like a rubbish tip."
It is hard to believe now, but a thriving seaside community with around 500 people now has around 50, the rest of them
"We have to live above the level area so that when anything happens, tsunami or what, they say we safe because we're far from the sea," says Ruth, a tsunami survivor.
High up in the hills, days are passed trying to build a new community. Today there was a game of bingo to raise money for a new church.
On that terrible day back in April 2007 they might have escaped the waves, but ironically it is clean water they now so desperately need.
"When we want water we have to go down to the valley and fetch water there," says Ruth.
Mr Kaunitz has been here since the tsunami. He is trying to lure them out of the hills and back to the old village, where there is water.
With the help of Unicef, he is teaching communities to build earthquake-resistant homes and schools.
"There comes a stage when you have to stop living in temporary accommodation and bad living conditions you have to think about the family and your children that survived," he says. "You have to think about those things as well."
But for communities like Titiana, it is difficult to forget. They live in fear the waves will come back.
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