Today's volunteers are part of a wonderful history of selfless giving in the face of tragedy and need. That effort has helped people to find new hope for the future despite the tragedy of the tsunami destruction.

More than six thousand people - from youngsters to a very able 81-year-old - travelled to Khao Lak in four years to give their time and work to the Tsunami Volunteer Center as it organised project after project to help a population shattered by the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.

At first, the efforts were to recover the dead and feed the living ... then to help rebuild structures (pictures right) and the very fabric of lives and communities ... to make furniture, the first from unused coffins ... to help schools teach English ... to teach English to adults as the local economy got to grips with the loss of four in five of its English speakers ... and to start community projects to replace lost incomes so that people could live.

Now you can become part of this distinguished history that is so greatly appreciated by local people.

As Krongkaew Panjamahaporn, the last Tsunami Volunteer Center manager,
says: "TVC has brought together so many people of good heart who wanted
to help others and make the world
a better place."

Now Volunteer Teacher Thailand, inheriting the English teaching role from TVC,
will be continuing to take people of good heart who want to help others as it
writes a new chapter in the history of volunteering along the Andaman coast.