TVE Asia Pacific, the originators of Children of Tsunami project, has its office in Nawala, a suburb of Colombo , Sri Lanka. Fortunately, the office was not affected by the disaster. Compared to the devastation in most other coastal areas of the island, Colombo - on the western coast - was spared much of the damage.

TVE Asia Pacific was closed for seasonal holidays when the disaster happened. Shortly after reopening on 3 January 2005 , the team mobilised themselves to gather emergency relief supplies through personal donations. These were channelled to the city of Batticaloa in the east through one of our staff members; and also to Sarvodaya (www.sarvodaya.org), the largest development charity in Sri Lanka, which mounted a well organised relief effort using their countrywide network of offices and volunteers.

In our initial assessment, we recognized that, in terms of financial and operational capacity, we are a small player that cannot directly tackle the massive relief and rebuilding needs. We were encouraged that entities that have such capacity -- from governments and armed forces to global and international relief agencies -- were addressing these needs.

We agreed on the six core principles that will form the basis of everything we do in response to the disaster. All disaster specific activities of TVE Asia Pacific will be guided by this framework.

Click here for our six core principles