Divers Giving a Hand in the Asia

Janne Miikkulainen from Raya Divers in Thailand is one of them. During the catastrophe he became well known to everybody through the media here in Finland. He is Finnish and an owner of four Dive Centers in Thailand. One of his Dive Centers was located in Khao Lak, the area mostly affected by the Tsunami. He and his staff were working three days around the clock, hardly without a break by trying to save people during the catastrophe and after that looking for survivors. Janne was also the most helpful resource for Finnish people to find out when or if their relatives and friends were found. He was actively sending updates to a Finnish diving website www.sukellus.fi to the administrator who was updating the site 24 hours a day.

During the three days between 26.-28.12. Raya Divers staff found more than 150 Finnish tourists that were lost from their families and injured in the tsunami. Raya Divers 9 member team from Khao Lak and two Aurinkomatkat travel guides were also working at the local hospitals and arranging evacuations for them to Phuket.

All their diving customers got back safe but they lost two Khao Lak employees. In the other Raya Divers destinations all customers were quickly evacuated to safety but some of the staff did get injured seriously and were close to loosing their lives.

Since December 26th Janne had been assisting the Red Cross in searching the remote areas for victims and later concentrating to help the local people in the Khao Lak area. After lots of effort Janne managed to arrange a legal way to collect money for the locals. As soon as he received the donations he went to the local camps and villages to help people who had lost everything. With a few euros donation one family could eat for a week. The whole amazing story of the help work is a long one; Janne has been actively updating his site so please check www.rayadivers.com. After a couple of weeks of repairing and building work Raya Divers has opened their doors and are diving again in Phuket, Raya Yai island and Krabi dive centers. Finnish people are back and the daily routine feels good for everyone.

The main worry after the tsunami was the condition of the coral reefs and finally after several test dives they have seen that the majority of dive sites have survived the tsunami very well. Marine life is even much richer than before and all of their 50 sites are back in the daily dive trip schedules.

Holger Saupe is the co-owner of Dive Supply in Phuket in Thailand. He is originally German but he has been living in Thailand for almost 10 years. Dive Supply staff started collecting clothes, food and so on for the locals right after the disaster. They brought lots of food to the local hospital and it was gone within minutes because they had only rice to eat during the first few days. Holger together with his partner Frank and their employees had cars loaded with food and clothes to bring it to the hospitals in and around Phuket the first few days after the Tsunami hit. They even went up to Khao Lak to support and help friends and their customers with lots of tools for digging out belongings from their collapsed houses. Also donations were collected to use and give away where most needed without delays and any organizations.

As he is a long term resident in Thailand he has made lots of close friends there. He lost one of his best friends, his "buddy" Heinz Oswald who was the owner of Moskito Diving Phi Phi Island. Heinz was very well known within the community and he was a leader and pioneer in the diving industry for the past 15 years. Also Heinz's two daughters became victims of the Tsunami, his wife and son did survive.

Moskito Diving's business goes on. If you are looking for a diving safari trip in Thailand check their website www.moskitodiving.com.

It is hard to imagine how heavy this time period has been to Janne and Holger among many other people who have been there during the disaster. This is something you will never forget. But life goes on with those who survived.