On the 30th of October at 5:30am in front of the Securitas offices in North Pattaya, 20 employees accompanied by a reporter from Pattaya Mail loaded a truck with 500 refief bags then set off for Aytuthaya to help the flood victims.
The Managing Director of Securitas Mr Steve Graham spearheaed the campaign to help those in the flood affect north some weeks ago when he got together with the Sawang Boriboon foundation, Tesco, Bangkok hospital Pattaya and city hall.
In the space of a few days they accumulated donations from private and public sectors and purchased consumer goods, antibiotics and many other necessaties to aid and alleviate the sufferings for the victims.
At the time the thing that was needed the most was a powerful boat to help rescue those who were stranded, this was purchased and was helping people in the north with 12 hours of the first meeting.
The atmosphere of the journey north last Sunday amidst the heat was filled with determination to expose themselves to the difficulties and the lives of the victims, to distribute relief packages to those in suffering and their determination had made the group forget the heat.
The entire route was pretty light for traffic heading north as most of the citizens had already evacuated. Abandoned cars were scattered along the roads and as the van decended to Sukhumvit road the journey became more labourious due to the water.
After about 20km the group reached Rong Klua Market which had been turned into the center for the Sawang Boriboon Foundation, in fact 55 branches from all over the country were congregating to help those in need.
The entire group along with 10 other Sawang officials left from Sawang Center to the target destination through Motorway 32 only 12 kms away from the center.
The stagnant water was evident throughout the entire journey until the Klongjit Municipal three-way intersection. The officials and employees transferred the bags to the boats, which were then distributed to victims in the communities; a speedboat with an 85 horsepower engine that Securitas Security services had sponsored was used by Sawang officials to distribute the bags.
Despite the amount of work going on people were relieved to see that the water level was starting to receed. With no roads being visible the boats made their way through the comunitty and spoke to residents who stated that the water had increased each day since the 11th of October and that some areas were still under 4 meters of water.
As the group speeded the boat and calling out for citizens, along the entire route, to accept the bags, residents who remained in their households, all tried to row their boats out to take the relief supplies; some houses are facing stagant water so high that they had to evacuate onto their roofs with their pets, particularly, dogs.
As for homeless dogs, in order to survive, they were living in old cars, temples, trees or any other area that was not flooded. The group, with bags and medicines, reached Klongjit Relief Center, which used Wat Klongjit School’s both buildings as relief center for the flooded communities.
It was learnt that more than 100 residents have taken refuge in the center, the group has donated more than 100 bags to the professors caring for the victims. Next, the group had travelled to distribute relief bags to monks in Wat where 26 monks are ordained, the group presented 44 bags to the monks and gave to those residents who hadnt recieved any aid before.
During the entire journey of the group and the questioning and joking around with the victims, it was a comforting thought to know that the majority of the residents were fine, gratifying the group with unique smiles of Thai citizens.
These signs had taken away all the tiredness and fatigue experienced by the officials and employees who offered their absolute suuport in helping the citizens even though they have travelled far and staying on the boats for more than 4 hours amidst the heat; it was unanimously agreed that all would like to participate in helping Thai fellowmen again.
