Raya
THE AID WORK PHASE 6 (part 2)
Trip to Khao Lak (09-06-2005)
Prior to our trip Garry received an email from John Moretti who was interested in donating playground equipment to the Tsunami region. This in mind we took of from Chalong Bay at 08:15 and headed towards Khao Lak.
We were three people on this trip: Garry Halpin, Tuomas Kivelä and Juha Koski. The two latter mentioned came from Laihia, Finland and were doing a voluntary project in the Tsunami region in Thailand, focussing their efforts to help raise financing for the people in need in this region, mainly in Phuket and Khao Lak. Juha is also looking into publishing an article about the current situation in the Tsunami region in Thailand and hoping that Raya Divers can further direct the funds raised in the future for the people in need.
10:00 We arrived in Khuk Kak village, Khao Lak at 10.00 am. We proceeded to Watkommaneeyakhet School were we met Sunisa Muenwong, a local resident and the owner of the Happy Snapper Restaurant and Bar. She had told Janne that the children in the school were in need of shoes, uniforms and books etc. Garry thought that the best way of supporting the children would be to provide them with books and teaching materials. However, after having a discussion with the headmaster, he suggested that the children could be provided with school uniforms, since some pupils only have one uniform and it is not practical having only one uniform when there is rainy days. Prior to making the decision whether to direct the financial support for uniforms or for teaching materials we went to see the pupils.
June 10, 2005 – At the Watkommaneeyakhet School – it was a special day for the school. It was the teacher’s day. All the children were gathered in a big hall and they were having a Thai-ceremony to praise their teachers. As we entered the hall, which did not have any walls on the sides, all the children glanced at us with a tremendous fascination. Their eyes opened wide, as they started to stare at us.
Our quick observations were that most of the pupils had appropriate uniforms, but some did not have appropriate black shoes. Instead some pupils were wearing white or brown sneakers. The headmaster had told us that many of the pupils have only one set of a uniform. Soon we understood that there was a need for 2 sets of uniforms as it started to pour cats and dogs. In Thai weather conditions there is definitely a need for 2 sets of uniforms – I mean the uniform also has to be washed quite often…
As we, the three blonde falangs (word which the Thai use to describe white foreigners), were standing in the front of the hall as the teacher started to tell the 389 pupils through a microphone where we were from. Soon that teacher handed the microphone to Garry, who told briefly to the pupils (in Thai language) what the purpose of our visit to the Watkommaneeyakhet School was. He told them that the Finnish people had given donations, which we were going to buy new school-uniform for each of the pupils. When Garry finished talking the whole hall of pupils started to applaud. It was a great feeling. Even a stronger feeling of satisfaction arose in our hearts when the teacher asked the pupils in Thai language: “Where do these men come from?” The whole hall-full of 389 pupils shouted out loud: “FROM FINLAND!” It felt really good.
This school was otherwise doing fairly well. One observation was that some students were living in tents built inside one of the school buildings. We also saw that the school was donated several new bicycles by UNICEF.
The tragic news was that 40 pupils had no father or mother after the tsunami. 30 had also no parent or parents at all before the tsunami. At this point we started to envision a “Godchild”-project. In this project people, from Europe, who want to support a child without parents through his/her education would biannually deposit a sum on dedicated account set up for a particular child. The school would then administer this account and use the money only for school expenses such as: school fee, uniforms and books etc. In fact, these accounts already exist for some children, since the government pays a very small amount for children without parents. According to the headmaster, this would be a good way to support some children in need. Additionally, the children supported from abroad, would “report” about their lives and study performance biannually to his/her “Godparent(s)”. Prior to the start of the sponsoring, the supporters would get a profile of their particular prospective “Godchild”.
Another, a very useful way of supporting the pupils, would be to provide the school with an expatriate English teacher, since the local English teachers often lack the advance skills in the English language. This way the whole school, also the teachers, would benefit of the language skills taught.
Both of the latter mentioned prospective ways to support the children in Khao Lak though should still be still carefully planned and analysed. We will come to this later.
11:45Our next stop after the school was a visit to Nok, a Thai lady, who had assisted Janne, Garry and Jani in the past in Khao Lak to find the local people in need. She had also been given money, as her house was demolished by the Tsunami. Garry could right away see improvement in the building process of the new house. Most of the money that was previously given to her had been used for building the new house.Currently she was still living in a shack, but the house on the right (see picture) was relatively soon to be ready. Nok joined us in order to show us where to go.
12:00We arrived to the village Khuk Khak, where we paid a visit to a local man, who Garry, Janne and Jani had also previously financially assisted. We were very happy to see that the house had been completed and that the whole family now could enjoy of their new home. He was very grateful of the assistance that the Finnish people had given to him and his family.
12:20 We parked Garry’s car to the front yard our next stop, which was a construction site of two houses. The other one was being erected to a family of five and the other one was being built for a monk. 10 men were working at the site and the building was progressing at a good pace. Garry knew the man in charge of the construction site from previous visits. Also these people had received financial assistance from Finland in the past. Garry was very pleased about the way they worked and that every time one pays a visit to these men, they have accomplished a great deal of work. These people had built 21 houses in total so far all working to help each other with no salary. This clearly gave us a very good feeling that the money was spent for something very tangible: houses for the families in Khao Lak. All the people belonged to the village and helped each other in the building work. Their own generosity was reflected by the fact that they were building for free a separate small house for a monk.
In the pictures on the right one can see the oldest man of the construction site who Garry is greeting- This man was working carrying bricks in both hands before the picture was taken. One picture depicts work in progress on the site. The final photo on the left shows the money being handed over to the families who are building houses.
Money handed out at the construction sites:
25 x 10.000 Thb (Each person including women ca. EUR 200. Total of ca. EUR 5.000)
13:00When we were done at the construction site we dropped Nok off at her house and gave her 5.000 Thb in order to continue her house-building project.
13:30We headed towards Similana Resort in order to search for a family that Janne, Garry and Jani had been financially supporting during the last trips to Khao Lak. Unfortunately we could not find them, since people without a permanent home tend not to stay in the same place. From there we decided to visit one of the camps, which were set up for people who lost their home during the Tsunami.
We ended up at a camp, which is also relatively famous, at least locally for its Saori Project. It serves as hand weaving as occupational therapy to help the victims of the Tsunami disaster in the Southern Thailand. The SAORI project is a long-term recovery effort aimed at creating employment and making use of arts as an avenue for mental rehabilitation. The whole idea originates from Japan.
There were 20 women working in this camp and they woven bracelets, coasters and small bags for mobile phones etc. We decided to help them with 1.000 Thb each.
Money handed out: 20x 1.000 Thb = 20.000 Thb which equals to ca. EUR 400.
14:30We said goodbye to the ladies and decided to drive to the Ban Mung camp, which was maybe 5 kilometres away from the above-mentioned camp. This camp had, in a rather short period of time, developed extremely quickly. We were really astonished how nice their new homes were. Frankly it can be mentioned that some families will get better homes after these projects than what they had. But this is really nice for these people, who lost most of what they had during the Tsunami. The earthly assets definitely do not replace the other losses that these people had to experience.
15:30After the hard day of work (believe me or not – giving away money efficiently to the right people is NOT an easy job to do) we were starving and decided to head towards the Phuket Island. We were feeling tired (Tuomas slept the whole way back), but happy that we had accomplished as much as we did. If possible, I would really enjoy visiting these people in a year’s time again. The feeling after doing something like – tangibly helping out people in need – is not the same as completing, say a good day at work or an amazing day of your favourite hobby. The feeling after doing something like what we did today gave me much, much more.
Total amount of money that we had beginning the trip: 492.193 Thb (EUR 9.844)
We gave away 275.000 Thb (EUR 5.500).
The rest 217.193 Thb (EUR 4.344) was spend on school uniforms.