Hand To Heart

Four months after a near-death tsunami experience, Petra Nemcova returned to the scene of the Thailand disaster with the sole purpose of helping where she could. A year later, she established the Happy Hearts Foundation (HHF), which continues to build schools for children in the aftermath of a disaster. Here, she tells Charmaine Ho more.

- Charmaine Ho

What inspired you to start HHF?

There was a huge need and the need was not being satisfied. When I returned to Thailand after being able to walk again, I talked to families in the shelters, the hospitals, or in temporary schools. I learnt that they were really worried because the first responders were leaving, and they still didn’t have homes, livelihoods, or schools for their children. And I learnt that this is a pattern that happens over and over, where the first responders leave and families wait for years before they have a school to go to. To me, it was unacceptable for children who have suffered so much, who lost many of their friends and family, to not be able to go to school again; it is extremely damaging.