During January and February this year, my 4 year old daughter Amber and I went to Khao Lac, in Southern Thailand to work in a Tsunami Volunteer Centre. In this area alone 10,000 people had died, and many others left homeless or without families. My friend Nee had nearly died and had lost her business and home in this area. I wanted to do all I could for these people and in particular the children. We left England in mid January with 40kg of basic medicine, toiletries, clothes and toys for the children donated by ourselves and the people of Newmarket. I would like to thank everyone who donated very much for their generosity. I hope the following photos will help to convey some of our experiences.

This is a small part of a board which goes for many metres around a tourist area in Bangkok showing photos of people missing in the Tsunami. It made me cry everytime I walked past.xxxx xxx	We travelled south to Khao Lac which was the worst hit area of Thailand. We went to a refugee camp called Bang Muang where temporary shelters had been built.xxxx xxx	Despite hundreds of shelters having been built, many people were still having to sleep under canvas directly on the ground while waiting for more to be ready. The Army were working constantly clearing, building and organising.
Two children looking for a pair of shoes in a dump of donated shoes. Understandably organisation and co-ordination was sometimes lacking during this difficult time.	Despite the chaos on the camp, some of the children were still off to school. The schools were keen to get some normality back to help the children recover.	Finally we got some officials together and began to give out our things. I was glad that we had been able to make our donations personally and see the smiles on the childrens faces.
Amber giving some toys to her new friendsxxxx xxx xxx xxx	Amber took a lot of trouble to give each child the toy they wanted.xxxx xxx xxx	Along the coast the devastation was terrible to see. The Thai Army were using earth moving equipment to clear the land which had once been full of homes and resorts.
The Tsunami had travelled 2km inland over this road taking everything in its path. There was nothing left untouched for miles along both sides of the road.	The skeleton remains of one of the stronger hotels but everything else around has gone.xxxx xxx xxx	The local people have lots of courage and spirit needing to continue life as usual. This family are selling their fresh pinapple.xxxx xxx
I read in the newspaper about a volunteer centre nearby. One hundred and twenty people had already volunteered of many nationalalities. Work included making new play equipment and furniture, island cleaning, working in schools and helping on the many refugee camps.	These are some of the tables made for local children. After the top coat was completed as seen here, the furniture was painted with lots fun designs.xxxx xxx xxx	Two gibbons had escaped from a local wildlife park during the Tsunami and had taken refuge in the centre. Mostly they spent their time causing mischief or just lying around on the computors waiting for some fuss.xxxx xxx
And of course climbing the trees. This usually involved taking bananas with them and throwing the skins or anything else that came to hand onto peoples heads.xxxx xxx xxx xx	The local school was thankfully a few kilometers from the sea and had survived the wave. Amber and I went and helped in the classrooms as many of the teachers had died as well as some of the children. This is the assembly hall which is completely open and has no windows because of the hot climate.	Some of the orphaned traumatised children were given art therapy. Many could not talk about the sea and did not want to ever see it again.xxxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
The reception class was being helped by army personnel who also kept their equipment in the playground. The children thought this was great!xxxx xxx	The children had fantasic fun at breaktime climbing all over the machines. I couldn't help thinking what health and safety at home would say about it!xxxx xxx	Some of the children at lunchtime with their teacher. We had bought them some ice lollies. Amber had great fun teaching the Thai children "Jolly Phonics" which involves acting out each letter sound.

To see the spirit in of all the Thai people I met was an amazing and a humbling experience. They are an extremely proud and wonderful people, always smiling and trying to help each other even in very difficult circumstances. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to have been their friend and them mine. Our thoughts are forever with you...