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PROJECT TSUNAMILike most Rotary clubs, the Jedburgh club provided immediate support to the devastating Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, in the form of cash donations and aqua boxes. The initial response from everybody was unprecedented, but so was the scale of the disaster. A week later the pictures on the news were worse, as the full scale of the disaster was unfolding before our eyes. The pleas and dignity from the victims were heart-wrenching. As club we felt it was felt that we would like to do more, but was sending more fund going to make any major difference We decided that we wanted to invest our time, efforts and very limited funding in to mid to long term sustainable projects that we could see grow an develop. We wanted to have some limited control over how the money was spent. At this time we convened a Tsunami committee to conduct a needs analysis and present back to the club, a way forward. From this process we determined that: · We wanted to provide direct support to victims of the Tsunami. · We wanted the projects to be mid to long term recovery projects. · We wanted to create relationships and partnerships · We wanted any projects to be sustainable and contribute to the local economy as well as support victims. · We wanted to have control and accountability over the projects.
The committee decide that the geographical area we wanted to support was Thailand and more specifically the Phuket and Kho Lak regions. This was a tall order, but challenges are there to be overcome and we set on a journey that would take us two years. The first task was to identify the projects. This was not as easy as one would imagine, after all we had quite strict remit on how the funds were to be spent. We did an internet trawl but this only proved the need of individuals and macro groups for support was out stripping the aid available. If we had identified a project we would not have the certainty that 100 percent of the money was going into the project and not being spent on administration. We therefore took the decision to send two Rotarians over to Thailand and base them in Phuket. The funds were raised internally, mainly through the very kind donation of a benefactor (Norman, Thank you), and some very hard bargaining with the travel agents. In June 2005 Steve McLachlan and John Sharratt were dispatched on a 5 day mission to identify projects. We were very luck to have two club members that had military experience and worked in disaster management and recovery. Skills that were fully tested.
Very quickly Steve and John had meetings with key groups and organisations in Phuket, that were involved in Tsunami recovery. All of them were very reputable and highly committed to recovery. They were an invaluable source of information and opened the door many local recovery groups. From all these meeting we were able to identify several projects to bring back to Jedburgh that meet criteria. These included: The building and refurbishment of an orphanage for victims of the Tsunami, Longtailed fishing boats, provision of tools, provision of computers to schools, sponsoring a family, sponsoring a child through education, building government standard houses, rebuilding a community centre and water projects for outlying islands. From these projects The Jedburgh Club decide they would like to support 2 project areas. These were, commissioning new Longtailed fishing boats and equipping them with nets and engines and to provide a water treatment plant to desalinate corrupted water sources. The Rotary Club of Patong Beach agreed to be a partner club and monitor all the project and provide feedback on project development, identify the recipients that would benefit from the projects, a role they have been dutifully carrying out. The next phase was to raise funds. This was done in a number of ways. The Jedburgh club organised a Grayling fishing competition. This proved a roaring success bringing together Rotarians and non-Rotarians and rising the awareness of Project Tsunami. This event proved so successful that a year later we held the same event, but this time it was the Scottish Rotary National Championship and attracted attendance from all over the United Kingdom. The eventual winner being George Ashton from the Grayling Society. (no fish were killed in the competitions). The next Championships will take place on 1st December 2008 (Sports convenors please note). A massive programme of talking to clubs, groups and organisations took place with Steve and John giving in excess of fifty talks. We wanted to get past the comfort zone therefore, these talks were designed to be hard hitting, emotive and controversial, but above all to communicate that the Tsunami recovery is still ongoing. The Jedburgh Health Centre started a campaign to raise funds for a Longtailed fishing boat. This project was started by Rotarian Dr Eddie Muir, saw the community of Jedburgh supporting the project wholeheartedly, easily achieving the target figure. All the usual methods were employed including coffee mornings, auctions, quizzes and whist drives. Once sufficient funds were raised the process of Matching Grants was started. The District Grants Officer Calum Thompson was extremely helpful and when the inevitable hiccup occurred he was able to sort it out very quickly. At this point the exchange of funds takes place. Things did not go to plan. The Patong Beach Rotary club had to undertake considerable negotiations to open an account for the Matching Grants to be placed into. This process took the better part of ten weeks and putting back the starting dates. The Longtailed fishing boats were commissioned from a local boat yard http://www.tsunamiboatproject.com/ and the last on being completed at the end of February 2007. All boats could have logos or name painted on the sides. The Jedburgh Medical Centre opted for the “the Pryde of Jedburgh”. The Jedburgh club’s boat had the Rotary Logo with Jedburgh (1020) under it and the third boat was dedicated to clubs from District 1020 These boats went to Sea Gypsy families on Surin Island. All the recipients made a living for themselves and extended family from fishing prior to the Tsunami. The recipients were extremely grateful when ownership was transferred over to them and could not wait to start earning a living again. The recipients were: Mr Joke Klatalay Mr Heng Klatalay, and Mr Montai Klatalay. While donating a Longtailed Fishing boats is a life changing experience to the recipients we wanted to ensure that they could make their living immediately. The package also included a Huge Honda engine and fishing nets. The water treatment plant is currently being installed and will, when commissioned for use in April 2007, provide fresh drinking water for a small coastal village that was destroyed during the Tsunami. The village’s fresh drinking water was inundated by the sea rendering it undrinkable. This package also trains the village to maintain and repair the water treatment plant. This plant has a shelf life of 10-15 years and will produce 35 million litre in its lifetime. Finally funds were made available to the boat yard to repair boats that were damaged and could not be used for fishing. As a small club in a town with a population of 4000 people, we knew that we would have to fundraise for years to raise the funds require for the projects. The only way to make this happen was through the power of co-operation with other Rotary clubs to making it happen. It was this co-operation and a real Rotary spirit that prevailed. This project was successful because we used the appropriate professional skill of club members in the organization, the fact finding, and administration of the project. We applied the Rotary 4 way test to the project and encouraged all the other clubs to apply the 4-way test. What would be the lessons to share?
Finally we would like thank every one who supported us in making this project so successful.
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Last modified: 21-Oct-2009 |
