|
|
The Village
|
 The Maidenhead InterFaith Group selected a village in Thailand, called Ban Laem Pom. It meets all the criteria we set for ourselves. We have two members with particularly relevant expertise who are working on this project, one (Dr Orapin Dawson) a Thai speaker, the other (Sarah Kelen) who has worked both within the British Embassy in Thailand and on projects in Thailand at Department of the British Council in England. This gives us direct contact with the Villagers. We have agreement from a highly respected local charity, Duang Prateep Foundation, who already works in and around the Village, to overview and help direct any help we provide as desired. We are also working with Anglo-Thai society, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to promote relationships between UK and Thailand, of which Orapin is an executive committee member.
The InterFaith Group has also resolved to look for a village in Sri Lanka which meets the above criteria and will follow this up as and when we find a suitable village.
Orapin visited Thailand to find out the extent of the damage. Our selection of Bam Laem Pom is one of several proposed by Orapin, each of which she visited in person.
 Ban Laem Pom is a community of around 30 households within a village of around 2,000 residents, called Ban Nam Kem (literally Salty Water community). The larger village itself neighbours an orphanage.
The community is left with a population of around 100 people. It is in the Khao Lak region, about 1 1/2 hour's drive north of Phuket. In earlier years, the village use to be a miners village. It had since become a fishing village at the time of the Tsunami.
Ban Nam Kem is one of the worst affected areas in Thailand. The Tsunami left a 2-3 kilometer stretch of land absolutely levelled. Ban Nam Kem lost 1,600 houses along with all 90 boats, eliminating the Villagers' means of providing for themselves.
Ban Laem Pom lost 50 houses, leaving none. A lost house means the house was entirely swept away, with no remnant whatsoever. The population of Ban Laem Pom is around 100 people. It was over 200 only four months ago.
 The Ban Laem Pom villagers live in about a dozen tents provided by the Emergency Agency immediately after the Tsunami. The government provided "compensation" of 50 per corpse. Apart from this help, no other help whatsoever has filtered through to the Village. Food comes entirely from donations of "essentials" from outsiders. When Orapin visited, she took a trip to a supermarket to buy all the baby milk they had, because no baby milk had been available to the villagers for months. Whereas "essentials" may be provided to some extent, it is absolutely insufficient for the medium term.
The Village has no external electricity. A generator was recovered which provides some electricity. The Villagers have had to put together, as best they can, temporary toilets and sanitation facilities. They have two large water tanks that need to be filled manually. Needless to say, they have no expertise within the village for these tasks.
It is difficult to portray the enormity of suffering of the Villagers - or of the value of hope that we can give with our help. Two stories below give a flavour of the situation.
 Neighbouring the village is an orphanage - another series of tents for children whose parents died in the Tsunami. There are around 800 children in three orphanages in the province, one of the three of which is the neighbouring orphanage, run by the Daung Prateep Foundation. The orphanage is run entirely by untrained villagers, supervised by the Foundation staff. One of the many ways the villagers are trying to help the children come to terms with the trauma is through drawing or painting their own images of the Tsunami on fine cotton, called "Batik". The villages are trying to organise sale of Batik to raise funds to pay for food for the Orphanage.
 One of the Villagers that Orapin chatted with had gone to the shops up the hill at the time of the Tsunami. She left her two daughters (5 and 9) and her mother having breakfast. When the wave came, she rushed back just to see the wave sweeping her daughters and mother away in front of her. She saw them disappear. The strength of the wave was so enormous that she was physically incapable of reaching them. She lost literally everything; her entire family, her house, her clothes, her possessions, her job. Like all the other villagers, she is now doing whatever she can to help herself, with the very limited resources available. She is one of the assistants at the orphanage, working to try to help the kids to come to terms with each of their own trauma.
|
|
|
|
|
