A FORMER teacher at Warrington & Vale College has spoken of his incredible journey since leaving his career over a decade ago to fly to Thailand and help teach English in a Tsunami volunteer centre.

Ken Hyde made his way across the Indian ocean in a bid to help people suffering from the aftermath of what is now known as the ‘Boxing Day tsunami’ – a disaster which struck the west coast of northern Indonesia back in 2004.

The tsunami saw waves of up to 100ft tall wipe out part of the Indonesian coastline and was one of the deadliest tragedies to date, with more than 220,000 deaths recorded from the day.

Ken responded to an appeal asking for English teachers to travel over to Thailand and volunteer to help with the recovery process of the disaster.

But after first arriving at the volunteer centre, he described being ‘taken aback’ by one of his first memorable experiences - tsunami Sunday.

“150 children were brought to a five-star hotel. They had all lost parents in the tsunami,” he recalled.

“It was a day of team games. After the afternoon break, the leader got the children sitting in a huge circle.

“He asked them to write down what they thought when they heard the word, Tsunami. He made them speak into a microphone.

"The little girl next to me spoke quietly. A woman translated it to me as ‘Mum didn’t come home’.”

Warrington Guardian: Ken has worked on a project in Thailand since 2004 when the tsunami first hit the coastline and broke apart so many families, leaving children as orphans Ken has worked on a project in Thailand since 2004 when the tsunami first hit the coastline and broke apart so many families, leaving children as orphans (Image: Newsquest)

Ken spoke of his devastation at having to witness the grief of the children he was there to teach, many who had lost their entire families.

He related his grief to a time when he had been working as a civil defence volunteer and had been assigned to help at the makeshift mortuary set up in response to the tragic Aberfan disaster which saw more than 100 children die when a coalmine collapsed down a hillside and landed on a junior school in the Welsh village.

Fighting through the grief, Ken stayed on to help volunteering at the centre in Thailand and overtime became an unpaid manager of the English project in Khao Lak.

Explaining the project in more detail, Ken added: “The purpose is to place English speaking volunteers into poor rural schools that cannot afford to hire teachers of English.

“The project became a Registered Thai Charity and won the Green Award from the Tourism Authority of Thailand for the best education project.

“The Award was presented by a Thai Princess.”

A teacher on the project said the students ‘loved’ the lessons with the volunteers and are now ‘hungry’ to learn more English.

Three years ago, Kens journey took a turn for the worst after he developed septicaemia and was forced to have both legs amputated, suddenly having to adapt to a whole new way of life.

Due to Covid and other issues the charity lost two years’ worth of funding and Ken has kept it afloat using his own teacher’s pension.

Despite the knock backs the inspirational teacher is still devoting his free time to helping others.

“In the last few years, I have lost my legs and all my life savings, but I am still volunteering,” he said.