Sindicatum Flood Relief
by: Kanittha Pinkasorn, Sindicatum Thailand
The floods in Thailand continue to create havoc for many Thai people.
Luckily to date our sites in near Bangkok and our Bangkok office have stayed safe from the flood waters. However the same cannot be said for many other surrounding areas…One of Sindicatum Sustainable Resource’s objectives is sustainability in all its aspects. With this in mind we were keen to immediately provide assistance to the flood victims. We decided to focus on nearby areas where we were provide immediate support. To establish what was most needed, the Local Authorities advised that food, water, boats and fuel were high on the list of requirements.
The Sindicatum Thailand team promptly obtained supplies and prepared flood relief packs for 1,000 households. The team coordinated by Kanittha Pinkasorn had the packs made up and ready for distribution in one day.
Our first port of call was an area approximately 30 km from our site that has been flooded with up 1.5 m of water in places.
During our trip to this area, we were able to distribute approximately 600 packs at a makeshift campsite setup for local residents who were homeless as a result of the flooding.
We then continued our journey by boat to reach more communities cut off by the flood waters.
At one location, we had to deliver the packs to the people in other boats as there was no dry land available to moor the boats.
Our intention was to distribute further aid to Srasilum district some 15 km from our site. We distributed approximately 300 packs, 2 boats and fuel to the people affected in this area.
We gave approximately 100 packs to a temporary camp for flood victims which were set up in the grounds of the local campus at Katsersart University.
The Sindicatum Climate Change Foundation donated a large percentage of our flood relief, with the balance being funded by Sindicatum Thailand.
The Thai Sindicatum staff were humbled to be given the opportunity to help the flood victims. It will take a long time for things to return to normal (it could take up to 2 months for the waters to recede). Further assistance will be needed to rebuild homes, schools and hospitals in the near future.
We are continuously considering how we can assist, and what short term assistance we could provide in the near future.
