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DONATIONS - GIVING THEM TO THE PEOPLE OF KHAO LAK

We were very surprised by the amount of donations that came to our bank accounts, mainly from Finnish people. Most of the people didn’t want their names to be published so we are publishing how much money we received in total and what was done with it is recorded to every Euro received.
Between 24.-25.1. about 677.000 Thb (13.600 euro) arrived to our bank account in Finland which was transferred to Thailand on Tuesday 25.1.2005. The money arrived to our thai bank account exactly one week later 1.2.2005.
On top of this one Finnish family and 2 of our divemaster students gave us another 16.240 Thb (330 euro).

TIME 11:00 SAfter arriving to Khao Lak we met first Raya Divers car drivers who are unemployed at the moment. Our regular driver Vee also lost his son in the tsunami. We gave them both 3.000 Thb (60 euro).
MONEY GIVEN: 2 X 3.000 = 6.000 THB (120 EURO) 

TIME 11:30 CHONG FA CAMP: 64 families, total number of people not clear.
Last time we didn’t have time to visit this camp and most of the people in the camp used to work in Khao Lak before and mostly related to the tourism. They live now in temporary houses made from aluminium and some aid organizations have brought them some pots and pans for cooking as well as electric fans. The temperature in these metal houses get extremely high during the day.
They were capable to prepare their own food but it was hard for them to buy the supplies since they had no money. The government has told the people that they will build houses for them at some point but no official plan has been made yet.
Naturally the people needed houses and a job, but they also needed just a bit of cash to buy some food supplies so they could cook for themselves. We gave out to the camp people 2.000 Thb per family. There were also another 3 families that didn’t have had time to register yet and their names were not on the list yet.
MONEY GIVEN: 67 X 2.000 THB = 134.000 THB (2.680 EURO)

TIME 12:30
We stopped along the main road to a kind of a camp, where there was couple tents and some constuction work going on. We interviewed the people and they told us that they come from the nearby camp. They are now starting to build their houses here which are funded by the government.
We hadn’t heard about this camp before, so we decided to go and have a look.

TIME 13:00
THUNG KHA MIN CAMP: 111 families, total number of people around 350-400.
People were living in a temporary houses made of thin ply wood. Many of the people used to live and work in Pakarang area which was the area that touched the most Scandinavian people (Hotel Blue Village Pakarang). Some of the people were local fishermen that had lost their boats and equipment.
At the camp there was a local ”Thamma Isla” aid organization, which had been collecting money in a temple near Bangko (Nakhon Pratong). They had bought electric fans for all the families in the camps. There was also the owner of a tooth paste factory who was giving all the people tooth paste and tooth brushes.
After talking to the people we decided to give every family 1.000 Thb (20 euro) since they were already getting some basic supplies already. After giving the money away the monk gave us a blessing and a Buddha amulet to protect us. He also told us to thank all the people in Finland who are helping the Thai people.
MONEY GIVEN: 111 X 1.000 THB = 111.000 THB (2.220 EURO)

TIME 14:00
We continued north towards Takuapa and stopped at the house of a Finnish guy who everyone in Khao Lak knew before. Eero passed away few months ago but his family is still in Khao Lak. Eero’s wife Amorn was at home and we gave her 3.000 Thb.
MONEY GIVEN: 3.000 THB (60 EURO)

TIME 14:30
BANG SAK LEIRI: 47 families, total number of people 215, children 60.
People were living in aluminium made temporary shelters and they seemed to have a reasonable amount of basic supplies like fans, pots, forks, spoons etc… Some of them also had a lot of food. None of them had any money, but a lot of them had various needs after talking to them. The people in the camp were mainly in good shape except for one lady who was just released from the hospital and had lost her whole family.
People told us that if they would have just a little bit of cash they could buy what they really need and decide for themselves. The government is building houses for them at the moment and they are being told the houses are ready in 2 months. We gave every family 1.000 Thb.
MONEY GIVEN: 47 X 1.000 THB = 47.000 THB (940 EURO)

TIME 15:00
PRU TIEW LEIRI: 189 families, total number of people not clear.
In this camp we were spending the most time on our last tour to Khao Lak camps. We noticed that there was more people than last time and they have been receiving few supplies, but some of the aid has not been planned so well.
The people told us that they have to cook their own food now and someone had brought them gas bottles. They forgot to buy the outlet for the top of the bottle to get the gas out so nobody was able to use these bottles. We promised to try to fix this problem during the next week with help from Kwanna Sopparat.
They told us that there camp is getting the least aid. There were some local volunteers who are not getting any money from anywhere either. Only the camp leader (Puu Yai Bahn) receives 3.000 Thb (60 euro) salary from the government.
We also heard that there are some problems with the waste water in the camp and many of the people has been having bad diarrhea in the last week. We gave 1.000 Thb (20 euro) to every family and to the 9 aid workers as well. We agreed that the camp leader is in contact with Kwanna Sopparat in the next days to follow the situation.
MONEY GIVEN: 197 X 1.000 THB = 197.000 THB (3.940 EURO)

TIME 16:00 We arrived to the Takuapa village and called to all Kwanna’s car drivers to arrive to her house. These drivers have been taking care of our daily hotel pickups in Khao Lak as well as the transfers between our different destinations. All these 11 drivers are now unemployed and some of them have family members still missing. One of the drivers also lost his life in the tsunami. These faces are familiar to many of our customers. We gave all the car drivers 3.000 Thb (60 euro).
MONEY GIVEN: 11 X 3.000 THB = 33.000 THB (660 EURO)

TIME 16:30 We had lunch and made some plans for the next steps of the aid work. Nigel told us about some families living near his house in Khao Lak who left the camps already back to their half-destroyed houses. When they left the camps they were not allowed to take the things with them that were donated to them already, we are not sure why? We decided to go and look at these families later that day.

TIME 17:30
BANG MUANG LEIRI: over 1500 families, total number people nearly 4000.
This camp is the largest and there was many aid organizations assiting the people already (as we noticed last time visiting this camp also). They had just received nearly 4000 electric fans from this same temple and organization what we met earlier today.
We were interviewing some refugees and volunteers in the camp and made the conclusion that our aid is more needed elsewhere. This camp was the most well-known and they had the most supplies from all.
However, some of the camp people told us that since it is so large, the aid is not reaching everyone there, some people are always left behind when giving them new supplies. Still, it felt too hard to start to interfere with the camp since we are not any kind of official organization and we decided to concentrate our efforts to the other smaller camps.

TIME 18:00 Nearby Nigel’s place there was many houses that were damaged quite badly but still people living in them. Only few people were at their houses when we went there so we agreed that Nigel will collect a list of names of all the people living there and next time we would come to see them as well.

TIME 20:00
Back to Phuket, phase 2 completed.

CONCLUSION
After visiting the camps twice now we think giving money directly to the people is a good alternative to the basic aid work the organizations are conducting. The people in the camps have very different needs and we couldn’t figure out any common thing that EVERYONE would need. People told us that it is fantastic to receive some cash since someone needed shoes for their kids, another one pots and cups, someone else dipers for the baby and some people needed to go to see a doctor. We also heard that after the tsunami on the 26th of December for example at Pru Tiew camp the people have received only 2.050 Thb (40 euro) each family, from which 1.300 Thb (25 euro) was given through Raya Divers. In some camps the donations we made today were the first money they received after the tsunami.
We realized that our way of giving money is also important way to help these people. This way the people can try to survive until they get their lives someday back on track.

TOTAL MONEY GIVEN: 532.000 THB (10.260 EURO)

The money that was left over from the phase 2 will be joined to the next tour we are going to do to the camps during the next week. All money donated to the camps will be cleared in the same way as it was done here.

HELLO TO FINNISH PEOPLE
All the refugees in the camps, people who lost their houses, aid workers, monks, nurses and other people we met told us to send their greetings to the people of Finland who were donating money to Thailand.
Some of them were also wondering why the Finnish people want to help them and we explained it to them in its simplicity: The Finnish people (as many other nationalities) were experiencing horrifying moments in Thailand when the waves were hitting the Thailand’s coast. The people of Finland were all very thankful of the assistance they got from local Thai people and this is their way to show their appreciation.