Kalmunai, Sri Lanka, after the 2004 tsunami: Mothers were indoors with their small children when the waves hit, while older children were playing outside. The older children climbed trees, where they watched their mothers and siblings washed away.
Four years after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, thousands of families still live in single-room dwellings in crowded camps. Rose Charities' micro-credit program has helped 300 families start small businesses, such as vegetable gardening.
Rose Charities ran a clinic for children who needed grief counseling, and created the Tsunami Memorial Children's Garden at the Rose Charities Community Centre. They now offer educational, cultural, and sports activities for the children as well.
Rose Charities sent a pediatric mission to Banda Aceh in Indonesia after the tsunami. These people were bringing children to the clinic.
Noot Seear's father, Dr. Michael Seear, led the first pediatric team to Kalmunai after the tsunami. Working from the Kalmunai Base Hospital, the team ran clinics that saw 500 children a day and sent nurses to the camps to find injured or sick children.
The FIRST-Rose Surgery in Cambodia provides free surgical procedures for the poor. Typical procedures include cleft lip and palate repair, land-mine amputation stump remodeling, and burns relief.
Noot's uncle, Dr. William Grut, led the second medical team to Kalmunai after the tsunami. With him is Dr. Collin Yong, also of Rose Charities. Here they are in the pediatric ward of the Kalmunai Base Hospital.
Martin Ward, RN, working in a hospital in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami.
The Rose Charities Eye Clinic in Cambodia gives free eye treatment to the poor. It performs 1,500 eye surgeries a year and treats over 14,000 people for eye infections. This is Dr. Hang Vra doing an eye exam.
Sharon Jantzen is a nurse specialist in child grief. She was part of the Rose Charities team in Kalmunai and helped set up a grief counseling clinic for the children after the tsunami.
Six weeks after the tsunami, the pediatric clinic was treating over 100 children per day. Many had not spoken since witnessing their families being washed away. This is the first session in the clinic. The children drew what they could not say in words.
The boy who drew this saw his mother and younger brother drown. He didn't speak for six weeks, but the grief clinic helped him communicate again. Noot brought 100 drawings to NY; they were exhibited at Milk Gallery and raised $65K for Sri Lanka's kids.
In 2005, Rose ran a counseling program in 19 Kalmunai schools and reached over 10,000 children and their families. Rose also began an educational support program to for high school students. Today, Rose has 36 sponsored students at universities.
