WHERE THE AID WORK BEGAN
Hundreds of those e-mails also included questions about our financial losses and how our future is looking like. Many people would have wanted to personally donate money to the reconstruction of our business. We answered those people that we will rise back to our feet as soon as the tourists return to Phuket. The local people though, they have a much worse situation. So we promised the people who had contacted us to start a special fund. We would take all the donated money directly to those who needed it the most – quickly and without any administrative expenses.
We were aware of that the Finnish Red Cross, together with other similar organizations, had ambitious projects that were planned with years of experience. Those projects aim to direct the money equally to many different targets, which all will help the local people a lot in the future. We in turn have our own worries and the majority of our time goes to the reconstruction of our own business. We neither had the skills nor the possibilities to start rebuilding for example schools, hospitals or other time-taking subjects. So we decided to gather in as much money as possible, as fast as we could, and take that money personally to those whose future looks everything but bright at the moment.
We saw that the tourism in Phuket and Krabi is starting to recover, and that it won’t take so long for the local people there to get their lives back on track again. In Khao Lak the situation is different. No-one knows when the tourism will return, opinions vary from one year to five. This means also that none of the people in Khao Lak can expect any income in a long time. So we decided that those people would be the target group of our small collection.
ORGANIZING A FUND FAILS
Our next plan was to cooperate with the media, for example a magazine or a newspaper that would already have the right channels and has done this kind of project before. So we started organizing this, only to find out that we would need the license through some official relief organization anyway. We were told that many such organizations are interested in our project and want to help. We were told to wait a couple of days, maybe a week.
While we were waiting, the people kept asking us when and where they could donate the money. Also local people in need for fast aid were calling us, asking when is it that we are coming to help to the refugee camps in Khao Lak. After a little more than a week of waiting, we were told that the relief organization we had chosen couldn’t participate in our project after all. The problem was that the rules of the organization don’t allow a collection where the money is directed to only one target. Another obstacle was that the collection was organized by a private person, and that the money wasn’t going to be delivered by local authorities. We quickly tried to find out if there is any other organization in Finland that could help us send the money here. So far we haven’t found one.
I was already asking in Finland whether we could start selling plastic snorkel holders with price of 50 euros and donate 99% of the profit to charity, but I was told that this could get us in trouble as well.
WE COULDN’T ORGANIZE A FUND, BUT RECEIVED DONATIONS ANYWAY
At January the 20th (that is after about 3 weeks of waiting) there was a turn.
A Canadian Family the Michelins informed us that they have transferred 50.000 Thai baht (ca. 1.000 Euros) two days ago to us at Raya Divers. The wanted me to take it directly to those Thai people in need of aid. We gave immediately 10.000 Thai baht (200 Euros) to the owner of the beach restaurant in Raya Yai Island, a young man with a family of two small children, so that he could as quickly as possible clean the mess on the beach, and rebuild his restaurant which was totally swept away.
The rest of the money, 40.000 Thai baht (800 Euros) we decided to use to help the people in Khao Lak. Petri Ahoniemi gave me another 100 Euros, and we dug up another 100 Euros from our own pockets.
In the morning of January the 21st we drove to Khao Lak with 51.000 Thai baht (1.000 Euros) with us.
The situation at the camps and the decisions about using the money:
On the way to Khao Lak we contacted the local people who had been working as our informers and guides while trying to figure out the need of aid. The whole morning and early afternoon we were wandering around the refugee camps in the northern side of Khao Lak. The people present were Janne Miikkulainen, Garry Halpin, Petri Ahoniemi and Kwanna Sopparat.
We visited three different camps:
Bang Muang: Biggest of them all, aprox 3,500 people. The situation at the camp was quite all right, considering the circumstances. People lived in tents, and there were many different relief organizations present, both from Thailand and abroad. The basic needs of the people were taken care of, and when we were interviewing the people and asking them what they need the most, the answer was WORK.
At the Bang Muang Camp we learned that this camp has received the most publicity of them all, and it is therefore there are so many help workers present. In the other camps however, the situation is not as good.
So we discussed what we urgently need to do is get these people things like kitchen tools and basic food supplies. On this trip, however, we didn’t have the possibility to buy these things for everyone. So we interviewed the people and asked what is it that they now need fast, and the answer was MONEY.
None of the camp inhabitants had any money, and we saw that many of them had different individual needs. People told us that it would be great to get a few coins, to buy something special things that the individual families need. We made a quick decision, drove to the bank to change the money and distributed 300 Thai baht (6 Euros) to every family. The people were overwhelmed with joy, thanking us overflowing for our aid. Even if the food supply now ended, a 4-member family could use this money to buy food for one week. We told the people that we will try to come back in one week and bring kitchen tools and food supplies, so that they can start preparing their own food.
Bangsak: In this camp there are 46 families, total number of people is not clear. The overall situation at the camp was relatively good. People lived in huts made of corrugated iron and they had quite a lot of different supplies. Some of them even had a gas stove and an old, scruffy sofa inside their simple shelter that even lacked walls. The nearby waterfall could easily be used for bathing, and the children were playing in the river from morning till dawn.
None of the camp inhabitants had any money. We did exactly the same thing that we had done in the previous camp; gave each and every family 300 Thb (6 Euros) so that all of them could buy themselves those supplies that they needed the most. We also promised to them we would come back later to see what their situation is, also what it is that they need next.
After our round at the three camps we felt that, even if we hadn’t done much, at least we have made many people happy. The happy faces, praises and hurray-shouts of the local people really made our day as well.
On the way back to Phuket we were pondering together what it would feel like to be in a situation like that. You live in a camp. Other people bring you the food they wanted to prepare today. Some others bring you the supplies they decided you are going to need today. It must be a great feeling that today I can DECIDE MYSELF what to buy in the shop.