Sir Roger Gale
Member of Parliament for North Thanet (Margate, Herne Bay & The Villages)
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KASTDA Tsunami commemoration
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December 26th 2014
Supporters of KASTDA , the Margate-based charity set up to support 100 children orphaned by the Asian Tsunami ten years ago gathered at Margate Harbour on Boxing Day to commemorate the occasion as they have done on each anniversary since the disaster took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
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Roger and KASTDA supporters
Dr. Champa Chapman, now consultant anaesthetist at the QEQM hospital, was in Sri Lanka treating victims of the tidal wave during the days after the disaster and described how her own family was affected.
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Patron of the charity, North Thanet's MP Sir Roger Gale, praised the dedication and continuing work of the volunteer fundraisers saying
"You have made the commitment to fund a hundred children brought to the completion of their school or university education and in a real way you have helped to transform those young lives, to rescue the children from the destitution of their terrible loss and to restore hope. The work will continue until the last of those children, a two year old girl at the time of the event, finishes her studies but you know that KASTDA is making a real difference and you should take great satisfaction and some comfort from that".
And KASTDA. Founder Dr. Mehta Methananda added:
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"Margate may seem a long way from our homes in Sri Lanka but the Tsunami was an event that claimed many victims from many counties and touched the whole world. We have relied upon generous public support to fund our work and this is a project that we shall certainly see through to the end - probably on another ten years' time."
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