A Master’s student of Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Management
(DPMM) at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the 10 days that Mr.
Smith spent as a volunteer in Indonesia in the immediate aftermath of
the recent tsunami is described by him as a “lifetime experience.” The
one great lesson I learnt was that one has to get on with life with
what we have – be it a limited variety of food, or any other facility,
Mr. Smith remarks after returning to AIT.
A part of a team of four volunteers of Télécoms Sans Frontière (TSF), he is not new to volunteer
services. After a career in the defense forces in South Africa, Mr.
Smith spent 11 years in humanitarian work. A specialist in landmine
clearance, his work took him to Kosovo, Northern Iraq and Afghanistan.
But this was different. “I have never seen this kind of devastation,”
he says. Unlike other conflict situations where he served, the time
scale of devastation caused by the tsunami was too short for anyone to
be able to react.
Even the journey from Bangkok to the relief camp was not easy. The
team of volunteers rushed from Bangkok to Jakarta, and followed it with
a ferry that took 14 hours before they arrived at the disaster site. At
Sikakap, a town on the Indonesian island of North Pagai, in the
Mentawai islands off Sumatra, in Indonesia, the team of TSF volunteers
established an emergency telecom center to offer communication
facilities to aid workers, government officials as well as Non
Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Along with Head of Mission, Mr.
Oisin Walton and Mr. Sebastien Sivadier of TSF, Clinton along with
another AIT student, Ms. Albane Coerrquetin, spent the next 10 days
offering emergency telecom services.
Returning after 10 days of volunteer work, he jumped back to studies,
assignments and exams. “But this is something I will never forget,” he
quips.
Mr. Clinton Smith helps a local boy
make an emergency telephone call in the aftermath of the recent tsunami
in Indonesia.