Leaving with the gratitude of all those that they helped

  • Organizing emergency response teams

    The volunteers' first glimpse of where they will be working.

  • Loading the emergency equipment

  • Coming face to face with the aftermath of the tsunami

  • Getting the volunteers and equipment to where they are needed

  • Checking the equipment

  • The welcome of the local community

  • Assisting NGOs

  • Living conditions

  • Inventory of requirements

  • Assessing the quality of the wells

  • Prioritizing drinking water for the hospital

  • Repairing the water supply system in Meulaboh

  • Treating water

  • Storing drinking water

  • Supplying water

  • Monitoring the quality of the drinking water

  • Children back at school

  • Supplying drinking water to remote villages

  • Concentrating on the task ahead

  • The feeling of having been useful


A feeling of having been useful

The volunteers will always remember that by working with these local communities they have experienced one of the most important events in their lives.

The volunteers leave with the memory of having experienced one of the most important events in their lives. They will always remember the welcome, smiles, kindness and gratitude of the communities with whom they spent three or four weeks.
All have volunteered to assist again in the event that other catastrophes should occur.

Eyewitness accounts

"I have volunteered to go again and would go tomorrow if I had to."

Lucy Lytton, hydrogeologist in London.

"What stood out the most was the courage of those who had lost everything."

Mohamed Yassine, Operations Manager in Rabat, Morocco.

"This experience has changed my life"

Jean-Charles Rochart, employee from Générale des Eaux in Hirson in the east of France.

"It was an experience both on a technical as well as human level that has had a great impact on me. It taught me an important lesson about life. I have volunteered to assist again".

Christine Bailly, laboratory technician at CAE in Florange in France.

"This experience has opened up new horizons for me".

Jean-Louis Lepreux, electrical engineer in the technical department in the Paris suburbs.

"Life is beginning again. I really feel that it was useful".

Frank Haaser, project director of Sade in Rumania.

"Very happy. I am ready to return."

Wan Hadib Wan Zain, technician and interpreter, Veolia Water Malaysia.