Sporting lovely beaches and inexpensive accommodations, friendly
people and a rich culture, Thailand is a winter break dream
vacation come true for students studying abroad.
No University of California study abroad student was standing on
those clean white beaches when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit in
the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, creating a tsunami that
took the lives of over 156,000 people and caused vast amounts of
property destruction throughout South Asia and the east coast of
Africa.
UC students studying abroad in places such as Thailand, India,
the Philippines and other affected areas are all safe and accounted
for, said Bruce Hanna, a spokesman for the Education Abroad
Program.
Students were out of the study centers and traveling for winter
break when the tsunami hit, Hanna said.
Initially, authorities at EAP were worried about students in the
program because many of the places where the tsunami hit were good
places to vacation, but there were no students in dangerous areas
at the time the tsunami met land.
Immediately upon learning of the tsunami, EAP offices launched a
two-pronged effort to ascertain the safety of students in affected
areas.
First, study centers in countries where the tsunami hit were
contacted, and then general requests were sent to all centers to
determine if they were aware of students traveling there, Hanna
said.
“We ask students abroad to be very good about informing
the offices about where they’re intending to go and stay so
that when things like this happen, we are able to contact
them,” Hanna said.
All EAP students are safe and will continue their study abroad
experience as normal, as none of the facilities or programs have
been affected in any way due to their inland locations, Hanna
said.
While none of the students suffered physical harm, those
studying in affected countries may have to deal with repercussions
on many different levels, from disease to potential budget cuts at
their respective universities.
Students and others returning to affected areas after holiday
travels may find an entirely different looking country, even in
regions out of the direct area of impact.
“It’s not going to be the same place that they were
at before,” said Kimberly Shoaf, an assistant adjunct
professor in the Center for Public Health and Disasters.
“A lot of services might not be available that were there
before, and government officials are going to be busy trying to
clean up their country,” Shoaf said.
The potential for disease and public outbreaks depends on the
public health systems, Shoaf said, adding that in a tsunami
situation, stagnant water and the long term impacts of a lack of
sanitation can increase the incidence of infectious disease.
No widespread outbreaks of any kind of disease have happened so
far as a result of the tsunami, according to the New York
Times.
For students in the EAP program, risk of disease at the
program’s inland locations isn’t a huge concern at the
moment.
The issues which could more directly affect students would be
indirect problems, such as budget problems for public universities
in places where governments are struggling to rebuild their
countries, Hanna said.
Aside from the emotional devastation at the loss of life, Hanna
said life for students in affected areas is “status quo,
business as usual.”
Considering the numerous EAP programs in affected areas and the
ensuing possibility of damage, “we were very fortunate that
we were not impacted at all,” Hanna said.
Several UCLA students were also in the area at the time of the
tsunami and were not affected, among them Brandon Vongsawad, a
third-year math and economics student.
Vongsawad was in Cha’am, Thailand, when the tsunami
struck, vacationing and visiting family.
“Everyone was glued to their TV sets, and if they
didn’t have one, they were glued to their
neighbors’,” Vongsawad said.
“For the first couple days, no one even realized it was
that bad,” he said, noting that the local reporting
didn’t accurately convey the scope of what was happening on
the coast to where he was, which was not an impacted area.
“Looking back, there’s been more deaths there then
there were in 9/11, just in a different part of the world,”
Vongsawad said.
“They need all the help they can get.”
Student organizations such as the Vietnamese Student Union and
the UCLA California Public Interest Research Group chapter have
been busy trying to provide that help.
While CALPIRG hasn’t had much success with tabling in the
last few days due to the heavy rain, they have several plans in the
works to raise funds, said Jolene Mitchell, a third-year
microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics student in
CALPIRG.
“We’re currently trying to work with dining services
on donating meals,” Mitchell said.
A dodgeball tournament featuring student government officers and
professors is also in the works as a fund-raiser, Mitchell said,
adding, “we still plan to go out and table.”
As of now, there are no student-led efforts in affected areas to
help victims, and “ironically in this case, many UC students
were able to help out more” with their fund-raising efforts
than students in the affected countries could, Hanna said.