Nothing prepared me for the scale of destruction in Aceh and even now - one year on from the tsunami - there are times when my mind drifts back to the month that I spent working in the area after the world's worst natural disaster. I left for Aceh five days after the tsunami struck and like most people I was overwhelmed by the television pictures and news reports on the extent of the disaster.

I spent over 18 hours travelling to Indonesia after which I boarded a domestic flight to get to my final destination - Aceh. The first thing that struck me when I landed was just how beautiful the place really is. I had read about Aceh and how the conflict in the province was affecting thousands of people but I never realised how stunning it was. Indonesia is known as a tourist's hot-spot with its charming beaches and breathtaking environment. But, because of the conflict that had been raging in Aceh for nearly thirty years, the area was like a closed military zone with civilians and international aid workers gaining limited access. The earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004 changed all of that forever. On my drive to the Oxfam office I kept looking out for signs of the aftermath of the tsunami.

As enchanting as the mountains and lush green paddy fields were, I knew they were disguising a horrible ugly secret and so I tried to mentally prepare myself before I saw the destruction. Very soon the smell of dead bodies, that awful, pungent, lingering stench, hit me and made my stomach churn. Out of the window I saw some body bags and then banners that people had made asking for help. A further 50 yards up the road I spotted aid trucks and vehicles representing various international aid agencies. In a strange way all of this made me feel far more at ease.

I now knew that this was for real and that in the following hours, days and weeks, I would be up close and personal with the devastating impact wrought by such a huge disaster on the survivors of Aceh. The dignity and determination of these survivors was very humbling as was their faith in Allah and their desire to get on and rebuild their lives. I met a fishing community who told me how they had run as fast as they could once they saw the sea rise. Out of the many hundreds that had tried to flee only 300 made it onto high ground and survived the awesome force of the tsunami.

The community lived off coconut and water. Two days after the tsunami they managed to gather the debris washed ashore and build temporary homes. "We had no choice - we knew that God has allowed us to survive and now we had to get on with it,' one survivor said. One woman, now a single mother to a family of seven children, told me that she was selling fish at the market when the earthquake struck. Moments later she heard rumours of the killer wave. She described how she waded chest deep through water for hours and hours, trying to make her way back to the village where she had once lived. When she did arrive, she saw that it had been virtually demolished. She related how she approached the one building that remained standing - the mosque - and found some men who looked like they were sleeping outside it. ''I approached the men and begged and screamed at them to tell me what had happened to the village and if they had seen my children - but none of them would answer me. At this point I put my hand on one of the men's arms to shake him awake. It was then that I realised that they were all dead.

I had been talking to dead people begging for information on my children'. Fortunately, she was reunited with all her children but found out later that she had lost many members of her family including her brother. In the month that I spent in Aceh I travelled extensively and heard many, many other similar stories. As a press officer it's my job to talk to people and create space in the media so that their voices can be heard. I feel very privileged to meet these people but I am determined that they should not be simply portrayed as victims of a headline-grabbing event. This is not a news story for the survivors who are now picking up the pieces of their broken lives. It is so much more than that. Yet despite the destruction inflicted by the tsunami, meeting its survivors strengthened my faith and belief in humanity.

Oxfam are hosting a free photography exhibition, After the Wave: The Tsunami Remembered, at Theatre Square in London's South Bank. It will be open until Tuesday 28th February. Log on to www.oxfam.org.uk for more details. * It appears that there is a post-tsunami baby boom in Sri Lanka and the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh. A UNICEF worker operating in Aceh told Associated Press that there had been mass weddings in refugee camps since last August and predicted that there will be several newborn babies in the coming year. In Sri Lanka an increasing number of births are also taking place and women who were now sterilised are asking for the procedure to be reversed.