Following the five-year anniversary of the devastating Asian tsunami of December 2004, the memories are still fresh. World Vision continues to work in the affected communities with long-term programs and child sponsorship, changing the lives of families like the Klasueks.

January 2010

Story by Paiwan Benjakul, World Vision Thailand. Edited by Rachael Boyer, World Vision U.S.

Time cannot erase memories of the huge wave that devastated so many parts of southern Thailand, including the village of Ban Ao Keu.

“Talking of it still makes my hair stand on end. The images are so deeply embedded in me,” said Mrs. Klasuek, 43, a Ban Ao Keu local. She is a wife and mother who takes care of her four children.

‘A black wave’

“The sea water rushed up all the way to that mountain over there,” Mrs. Klasuek says, pointing to the towering hill more than a mile from her house.

“It was Sunday...as I was cooking, I heard a very loud sound,” says Mrs. Klasuek, recalling the moments before the tsunami. “The sound was swift like many helicopters flying together. So, I told my daughter to take her younger sister to see the helicopters as they were coming this way.” She heard people shouting and running, but didn’t think much of it.

“A moment later,” she continues, “a local girl ran up and said, ‘a huge wave is coming, run, quick!’ I turned around to look and saw a black wave coming. The top of the wave was white and it was not far from me.”

Mrs. Klasuek picked up her youngest daughter with one arm and jumped out through a window. She grabbed her other daughter’s hand, and they ran to the top of the hill.

Surveying the damage

After the water level went down, they saw what remained. Out of the 115 houses in her village, only 15 weren’t completely shattered by the wave. Miraculously, all the immediate members of the Klasuek family survived, and their house was one of the few left standing.

“All the possessions we had accumulated were gone,” Mrs. Klasuek says. “Only the clothes that we had on remained. My family was completely stripped of everything. Nothing remained of our household goods. Our boat was also destroyed.”

Your donations at work

The Thai government gave the family 20,000 Baht (about U.S. $500) to repair their house. But they didn’t spend the money on repairs: “Instead, I kept it for my children’s education,” says Mrs. Klasuek.

After the tsunami, donations poured in from around the world to help the survivors rebuild their lives. Part of the rebuilding effort included helping families re-establish their businesses and livelihoods. World Vision provided the Klasueks with another boat so they could catch food and earn money by fishing. “We’re so glad that World Vision provided us with a new boat,” she says.

The Klasueks youngest daughter, Ya, is now 7. She is the child that Mrs. Klasuek carried as she jumped out the window and ran up the hill as they escaped from the tsunami. The proud mother displays a wide, loving smile as Ya comes out of the house to join the conversation.

“She receives school supplies from World Vision,” Mrs. Klasuek says about Ya, who is in first grade. “She gets school uniforms and shoes. It helps me...we are rather poor. My husband is the only breadwinner in the family.”

A marathon, not a sprint

Officially, World Vision’s tsunami response program came to a close at the end of 2006. But the following year, World Vision began a long-term development project in their area to improve quality of life.

“Ever since World Vision Thailand came, they have continued to help,” says Mrs. Klasuek, “whether it was for the children and their education, or by forming livelihood groups for the adults. I myself had a chance to go and receive training in how to make organic fertilizer, at the natural agriculture center in Tung Song district.”

The family grows vegetables and nuts on a plot of land and used to have to spend quite a bit of money to buy fertilizer. Now, with the organic fertilizer that Mrs. Klasuek makes, they save a lot of money — the fertilizer works better, and they don’t have to use as much.

“All the other foundations that came after the tsunami have gone,” she says. “Only World Vision is here for us in the long term.”