(Unfortunately we had problems with our foto equipment again & are not able to post any pictures)
In the morning of 10.3.2005 when leaving for our 5th trip to Khao Lak we had money:
Bank transfers: 105688Thb (2202 euro)
Money leftover from phase 4: 238045Thb (4959 euro)
Our customer donations: 11834Thb (246 euro)
Total funds: 355567Thb (7407 euro)
The aim of the Aid Work Phase 5 was to help those people in Khao Lak who do not live in the refugee camps and therefore do not receive any help. Our team was Garry Halpin and Jani Makinen.
We made our first visit to Khuk Khak village, where we had already been before. We met a mother called Nok, who helped us the last time to find those in need. Because of our previous donations, everything seemed better. The only new face was one friend of Nok’s. She had lost her two children at Pakarang Beach. She had also broken her foot so badly in the tsunami that she was unable to move properly. We gave her 5000Thb.
MONEY GIVEN OUT: 1 x 5000Thb
Our next visit was to Ban Sak Beach, where new houses are being constructed to the homeless. After leaving the construction field we met four very elderly people in there 70’s, who were all related. The tsunami had taken all their homes. They had already started the rebuilding process, but there was not enough money. Therefore their children have been forced to leave the school and start working. We gave each one of the family members 5000Thb.
MONEY GIVEN OUT: 4 x 5000Thb = 20000Thb
The fisherman village Baan Nam Kem, which was badly damaged during the tsunami, was still full of army men in rebuilding process. We decided to let them do their work and go further as it was difficult to find any villages at there own homes.
Next village we went to check was Moo Sam in Baan Nam Kem village, where we had also been before. Everything seemed better than last time we visited, so we decided to continue.
After a long search we found the small village of Bang Mor. We met a three-member family living in a really small room. The young girl looked really bad. She had suffered severe brain damage in the tsunami, and lost all the everyday-life skills, including going to the bathroom, etc. However, she was able to give a big smile and tell us one word: Thank You! In English it was very sad to see her like this, We gave each of the family members 5000Thb.
In the next room we found 25 Burmese people. They had all been working for almost ten years in a nearby prawn farm, which was now completely destroyed. They all lived in that same small room and didn’t receive help from anyone as they were not Thai citizens. We gave each of them 2000Thb. When we told them Jani was from Finland, they showed us the ID cards of two missing Finnish people. They had found them at Bang Niang beach. We took the cards and will deliver them tomorrow to the KRP (Central Criminal Police) of Finland.
In the surrounding houses in the village, we found 59 people. The government was helping them earn some money by cleaning up of the schools. They were receiving 175 baht per day when they were cleaning the schools, We gave everyone 1000Thb.
MONEY GIVEN OUT: 3 x 5000Thb = 15000Thb
25 x 2000Thb = 50000Thb
59 x 1000Thb = 59000Thb
We also visited Pakarang Beach. There we found a 25-member family that had lost 11 family members in the tsunami. They had lost boats and small shops at the beach, and didn’t receive any aid. The men of the family were currently building wooden fish traps when we arrived. We gave each of them 2000Thb. They were so happy someone came to help them and they told us only the people in the camps were receiving any help, so we believe that by helping the people outside the camps who are trying to get on with there lives that we are doing something were no aid is reaching at this time.
MONEY GIVEN OUT: 14 x 2000Thb = 28000Thb
On the way back we stopped at a construction field, where new houses are being built for the homeless sea gypsies. We had lots of coins that our Finnish customers had left us. We gave one girl 1834Thb and told her to buy some food for the construction workers that were working there.
MONEY GIVEN OUT: 1834Thb
We drove the whole day around small roads by the beaches. The day went quickly and we ran out of time, so we decided to save the rest of the money for our next trip. We realized that the aid work takes a lot of more time when you meet one family here and another there, and don’t go to the camps to meet 50 families at the same time.
MONEY GIVEN OUT TOTAL: 178834Thb (3726 euro)
The aid work phase 6/1 >>