On the day after Christmas, a brand new building on Kamala beach in Phuket, Thailand was due to open its doors to almost 200 children from the local community. In celebration of the event, parents, teachers, and children had planned an opening gala, with balloons, food, gifts and a great sense of pride in what was to become a local community center for children between the ages of 3 and 6.

After almost two years of fundraising and construction, the Kamala Child Development Center came very close to reality. But when the tsunami swept across the Andaman coastline on that Sunday morning, the building was destroyed, along with the hopes and efforts of many people who had worked so hard to support and build the community center. Two children were also killed in the circumstances caused by the disaster.

In partnership with the Bangkok Phuket Hospital, the volunteers of the Phuket Project hope to raise monies to help the local community rebuild the Kamala Child Development Center, and work alongside the Thai people to architect and reconstruct the building for the children and their families. Our goal is to send volunteers in groups over the spring and summer and help with whatever is needed to get the building functioning again.

More than twenty years ago, the Kamala Children's Center was a single room in the home of a woman from Phuket. Eventually it came under the control of Thailand's Department of Community Development, a part of the Ministry of the Interior. And since being established in 1980, it has grown from a program with 20 children to today's roster of 182 kids, ten teachers and assistants.

After the tsunami, the children and their center have temporarily been relocated to a location within the grounds of the provincial government. Unfortunately, the space is quite small, and lacks essential teaching materials for the local children. The community center obviously needs to be rebuilt, and the goal of the Phuket Project is to find these types of local initiatives that support local communities, and helps the Thai people recover from the disaster.

The Bangkok Phuket Hospital has already established The Kamala Child Development Center Foundation with a goal to raise 125,000 dollars to rebuild the Center and provide an ongoing budget for teaching materials and operational needs. The Foundation will also endeavor to support education, development, and learning activities for the children in the community over the long term.

This will be the first initiative for the Phuket Project in Thailand. If you are interested in volunteering or can donate to the relief and recovery effort, please do so here, or if you need more information, please contact us.

click to see more photos

Map of Old and New Center locations