Today is World Tsunami Awareness Day. According to the UN by the year 2030, an estimated 50 per cent of the world’s population will live in coastal areas exposed to flooding, storms and tsunamis. For this World Tsunami Awareness Day, Club President Jenny McLelland reflects on her personal and very close up experiences of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.
In 2020, World Tsunami Awareness Day encourages the development of national and community-level, local disaster risk reduction strategies to save more lives against disasters. This year’s observance promotes “Sendai Seven Campaign,” target.
Tsunamis are rare events but can be extremely deadly. In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster, surpassing any other natural hazard. The highest number of deaths in that period was in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hardest-hit.
President Jenny writes…
One day in 2012 I suddenly realised the emotional loss that a Tsunami can create when I saw my little girl walking into the sea one day, leaving behind her flip flops on the sand. It brought back vivid memories of Thailand and the number of children who lost their lives and of the images of the flip flops that were left behind them, each belonging to a little person who was loved so much.
Rewinding to 2004 the word ‘Tsunami’ meant very little to anyone before the Thailand Tsunami occurred that year. To me it was a life changing event which gave me the courage and incentive to achieve whatever I set out to do.
“Why?” you ask? Well, I am a serving police officer and I worked in Thailand as part of the ‘International Response’ to the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. I worked with colleagues from over 40 different countries and we all had the same goal…To make sure that anyone who had lost their life was repatriated to their families at the earliest opportunity. I was part of that mission and it was an incredible journey.
During my 14 months in Thailand I tried to influence and make a difference to families’ lives through the sponsorship of girls in education, building schools and play areas, and via various charity projects using the skills and donations of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Teams. The most important job I had was showing families around the devastation of where their loved ones lost their lives. To be able to provide answers and honesty make such a difference to them.
So how does this fit in with my being a Soroptimist? In 2015 I gave a talk on my experience to Lichfield and District Soroptimists and was not allowed to leave! I was inspired by the professional organisation and I knew I have something to give and share.
In April 2019 I was made President of the Club – which is a real honour. I never realised it would happen in the middle of a pandemic! My work and life experience has helped me support my club and provide a real drive and focus to achieve even more. I work with an amazing team of women and we achieve some great things to improve the lives of women and girls across the world.
If you’d like to know more about what we do, get in touch. We’re meeting online through the CV-19 pandemic and you’d be very welcome to join us and see what we’re about.