A Rotarian and the Motorcycle Club:

Today (January 11, 2005) I visited Khao Lak with my local motorcycle club that had raised almost 200,000 baht to help the tsunami victims. Like a lot of donators we wanted to do something for the children.

Our Thai president made some inquiries and found out about the neediest school that had been affected in the worst hit areas. The Bang Sak School not far from Takua Pa that was totally destroyed was certainly top of the list. Out of the 126 pupils 99 still remain. 5 were killed and some families have since left the area. Some of the children have lost one of their parents.

We found only about 35 young students in a very temporary building off the highway. We were told by teachers that they needed very little for the school as the government was providing well and they had already provided funds to build a new school. They said the big need was to help the families as they had all lost everything.

We decided to make a party early next week for the kids and split our donation between all the schools needy families. Not a lot for each family but we were happy that our money would go to help the very needy a little.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE RESILIENT KIDS WHOSE FAMILIES NEED HELP: 

After promising to come back early next week and just before we left we were told about a community in the hills that needed help so we went and took a look. We found a camp way up in the hills comprising of about 300 displaced survivours that were camped out and living under tarpaulins.

They had all lost all their worldly goods and most of the 126 families had lost at least one loved one. Before the tsunami hit they were the Buddhist inhabitants of a small fishing village right near the beach. Over 100 fishing boats had been lost and every single home.

They were being taken care of with food and water and medical attention by a small group of Christian relief workers and volunteers seen below.

We were told the same story that the families had lost everything and they badly needed help to get back on their feet and have some sort of life after their incredible trauma. Most couldn’t afford to get school uniforms or afford to send the children to school.

This camp was too big for the bike club to help but wearing my Rotary hat it seemed a great opportunity for our Rotary Club of Patong to assist these very needy displaced persons. I understand that the government hopes to improve the temporary housing as soon as it can but with their heavy workload I think it will be some way off. We can help in some way now.

After tabling the idea at tonight’s meeting it was agreed to allocate some emergency funds to assist the needy in this Area. Thursday morning Khun Sii, myself and perhaps Wolfgang will visit the community and assess the best way to relieve some of the hardships. Travelling in a different vehicle Larry will be visiting some of the smaller Muslim villages further north. We will report our findings to the Club upon our return.

Working in Rotary,

Alan Matthews