R BROTHERS HELPING DEPRIVED COMMUNITIES
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to ic search for their parents and younger siblings. They discovered Mattie had been swept away by the tidal wave and washed into a coconut tree while their sister was being looked after in a nearby surf resort.
Paul continues: “We went back to our room but it had been looted so we had no money.
“We knew we needed to go inland and our brother and sister needed stitches so we just grabbed some T-shirts and shorts and left.”
Incredibly, the four kids managed to hitchhike to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo where they were put on the next plane back to Heathrow and taken to live with their older sister Marie.
Paul continues the story: “Within two weeks we were back at school and given a different name.
“No-one at school knew what had happened – I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. But we didn’t have confirmation our parents had died.”
In fact, it took three months for the family to find out Kevin and Sandra had definitely not made it.
“So many people had died that they couldn’t get the bodies back,” says Paul. “Every day at school we were thinking: ‘They’re still alive, they can’t both be gone.’
“Then one day our sister phoned us, said we needed to come home and we found out the news.”
After school, Paul did a plumbing course before he and Rob came up with the idea to set up their own company where they could also do good. They dreamed up the idea of Gandy’s Flip Flops – the name came from Rob waking up at a festival and declaring his mouth was “as dry as Gandhi’s flip flop” – and vowed to give 10% of their profits to charity.
They were a hit and Gandy’s went on to expand into practical clothing for travelling.
Five years ago, on the 10th anniversary of the tsunami, they opened their first children’s home in Sri Lanka.
Further projects have followed in Malawi in south-eastern Africa, with Nepal launching this year and Brazil next year.
Classes
Each location differs in what it offers – the homes in Sri Lanka and Malawi are used as pre-schools where kids can get nutritional meals and go to after-school classes and are helped to find work when they are older.
The scheme in Nepal helps young children who have been trafficked to India.
“In 10 years we reckon we’ll be able to do one every six months,” says Paul.
Fifteen years on and Kevin and Sandra are never far from the brothers’ minds.
“One year I was in Australia at the Ashes on Boxing Day and we bowled them out for 98,” says Paul. “I thought: ‘That’s probably from dad.’
“It’s hard but you just have to keep yourself busy and move forward. You have to look forward rather than back.”
● See gandyslondon.com information.
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