Why I started Happy Hearts Fund:
Where do I start? At the beginning, when I was rescued and recovering, all I could think about was how I could help the children forever affected by the natural disaster I just experienced.
Why I started Happy Hearts Fund:
Where do I start? At the beginning, when I was rescued and recovering, all I could think about was how I could help the children forever affected by the natural disaster I just experienced.
Months after the tsunami of 2004, I started to heal physically, but that was the easy part. I lost a lot, personally, but the people of Thailand had lost so much more. So I decided that if I could walk, I could get on a plane and go back to the location that forever changed the course of my life. Four months later, I did just that, and with my sister, Olga and a few close friends, I went back to Thailand.
When we got there we immediately noticed that there were no television cameras, no reporters and no relief workers there to help out anymore. I quickly realized that the first response was over and now the government would obviously step right in and rebuild. I would soon realize how wrong I was to assume that the transition would happen so quickly.
We started by going back to the last place I remember before the wave hit us. I couldn’t believe the devastation of this former paradise. To say it was difficult to be back and incredibly heart breaking would be the understatement of the decade.
After absorbing the surroundings, we continued our tour of the village and some local communities and met some incredible people, trying to put their lives and their homes back together. We listened to stories of resilience and shared our individual stories of personal loss. It was the beginning of a long healing process for my heart and soul.
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Then we started to talk to the children, many of them still in shock and disbelief over having their young lives so abruptly turned upside down. I could see in their eyes that they lost hope. They talked about a lot of things, but the common thread was how important school was to them and their friends and how upset they were that no one was helping them rebuild their schools. It was at that moment that I realized there was a serious “Gap period” and it would be a long time before the government would be there with the assistance needed to help these children get back to learning and a sense of stability. I decided that I could help build or rebuild “Happy, self sustaining schools” in areas affected by natural disasters and soon the “Happy Hearts Fund” was born.
It was an incredible journey and through this adversity, I found new meaning in my life. I knew I could make real change around the world that people could see in bricks and mortar.
So that’s chapter two. I look forward to sharing the next chapter, next Monday.
Lots of love, light and happiness.
