NON MG Project, Rotary District 7910/USA, LIONS Zimmerberg/Switzerland and private contributors from Europe and Thailand
– Early relief: Food, kitchen equipment & utensils, clothing, toys, books, sweets
– Repair of longtail fishing boats, new boat engines & longtail units, new marine radios. January - June 2005

MG 56925, Rotary District 2060, Italy - RC Eastern Seaboard, Thailand
13 new long-tail fishing boats for tsunami-hits families, all boats are equipped with Yanmar TF 115 engine, rudder/propeeor unit, marine 2 way radio. May - September 2005

MG 56933, RC Enschede Zuid, District 1560, Holland - RC Eastern Seaboard, Thailand
9 new long-tail fishing boats for tsunami-hits families, all boats are equipped with Yanmar TF 115 engine, rudder/propeeor unit, marine 2 way radio. May - September 2005

MG 58727, Rotary District 2060, Italy - RC Marina Pattaya and RC Eastern Seaboard, Thailand
To provide a Sea Barrier in Ban Nam Kem & Material for Nets & Traps to fishermen families. This MG is in addition to help provided earlier with MG 56925 & MG 56933 for 22 new boats plus Non-MG projects to repair 24 damaged boats. September 2005 - April 2006

The coastal-lines of the Indian Ocean; in the South Aceh (Indonesia), to the East; Southern Thailand and Burma; to the North Sri Lanka and the West Middle Easter coastline of Africa were more or less effected by the Tsunami on the 26. December 2004. The damage and shock on the coastline of Thailand was devastating. Over 5’400 dead, only in Thailand and outlying islands have been accounted for. It could have been many more. That is not to speak of the material loss to the folks living along the water-line, earning small cash to stay alive.
The Thai Tsunami disaster became one of the RCES’s projects. In short, first things the RCES decided that a delegation of sometimes two, some times three, even volunteers not member of the RCES traveled by pick-ups from Pattaya to Ban Nam Kem with the most urgent needs, e.g. soap, T-shirts, other clothing materials, toys for kids and even some snacks to relieve the sorrows were packed up and handed out directly to those in dire need and directly from hand to hand of the recipients.
RCES, after inspecting, decided to help on the village named Ban Nam Kem, a village almost only housing fishing-folks. The situation was so discouraging, learning of the human and material loss. Entire families perished in the waters. Boats, registered and unregistered with the government, were in a pitiable state, some beyond repair other needed a lot of work to get them back to seaworthiness. Than we took stock of the fishing boats and the state they were in and established how many went missing all together. We established budgets, at which stage of the repair and reconstruction and construction money provided by the RCES would change hands. A time table was established. Our efforts in planning the undertakings were met with gratitude and the work began. The first thing was to negotiate with the boat builders and find a common date and price acceptable to all concerned for the 24 repairing and 22 new boats. Shopping lists included wood, the fitting out of the boats, electronics, widgets and engines, finally three set of fishing nets (3 different sizes for different kind of fish). So in the fall of 2006, 46 boats were again back on the Andaman Sea guaranteeing the livelihood of the peoples of Ban Nam Kem. All new boats were registered with the government (an RCES precondition), they were blessed by monks and a very memorable party was organized.

Special thank to the Main Sponsors (in descending order):
The Rotary Foundation
Italy D-2060 & its Clubs
The Netherlands D-1560 & its Clubs, Kiwanis International, private contributors
The United States D-7910 & its Clubs
Switzerland Lions International & private contributors
Thailand RC Eastern Seaboard, RC Pattaya Marina, private contributors

President 2005/2006 Renato Porzio, Incoming President Marliese Fritz, Vice President Stefan Ryser, Rtn.Toy Ryser, Rtn.Anuphong Thummalee and volunteers Heinz Fritz and Rolf Knecht.