Khao Lak’s rebuilt school transforming the lives of students
The flagpole of Bang Sak School was all that was left standing after the Boxing Day tsunami destroyed the coast of Phang Nga province in southern Thailand 10 years ago.
About half of the 5400 people who died in Thailand’s six southern provinces were foreigners, including young twins of a Dutch teacher from the International School Bangkok (ISB), who were swept from popular tourist beach Khao Lak on the eve of their seventh birthday. At the time, the twins’ uncle lived in New Zealand, and he rushed to Thailand to support the family.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, ISB began fundraising for tsunami victims, choosing Bang Sak School as its focus because it was near where the twins died and because the Thai king’s Rajaprajanugroh Foundation was rebuilding it.
Renamed the 35th Rajaprajanugroh School, it opened on higher ground, beside the original site, less than four months after the tsunami hit. It now has about 670 students from year 1 to year 13.
ISB deputy principal Ugo Cotessi, an Italian who was on a southern Thai beach with his Dutch wife when the tsunami hit, said the school raised nearly NZ$2 million in the first few years after the tsunami, helped by international schools around the world, and some big corporates.
The money paid for buildings and facilities, prompting an award from the king for their efforts.
However, its After The Wave charity and the ISB Tsunami Relief Network continued to help the school.
‘‘Our co-operation and friendship and support with this school we call a never-ending situation, so we project we will be partners forever,’’ Cotessi said.
ISB funded an English as a Second Language programme at R35, organising volunteers from overseas, mainly the United States, to teach English to the students to help them gain work in the tourist industry once finishing school.
It also sponsored about 120 pupils a year and had a scholarship fund, which paid for tertiary education for about a dozen students annually. Sponsors included ISB staff plus their friends and family from around the world.
Some New Zealand teachers at ISB had sponsored children from the beginning.
Bang Sak’s principal, Prasit Sathapornjaturawit, who was at the school when the tsunami hit, later became the R35 school’s director. He said he was extremely grateful for ISB’s support, which had helped to transform the futures of hundreds of students who had faced severe challenges as a result of the tsunami.
Four of the original school’s 127 pupils were killed.
Some students had traumatic stories to tell, such as Kan, a 15-year-old, whose father was killed after he pushed her mother up a wall to safety but the wall crushed him to death.
Another student, Kwan, was swept away in the wave while at his parents’ shrimp farm.
A few years after the tsunami, the Dutch teacher, who did not want to be named, and his wife adopted Thai twins. They had since visited Thailand with them, Cotessi said.
‘‘I think you continue your life but you have a big thing inside. They carry on with their life and they have adopted twin boys, who are fantastic and full of life.’’