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To Henry who says the Red Cross sucks,

your post sounds more like a platform for a political rant than it does a true story. Sorry, it just doesn't ring true with me.

PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THE AMERICAN RED CROSS - READ THIS

The American Red Cross - the thieves that they are - still has over $300,000,000 from funds collected by them for tsunami relief. I have just returned to the states after two years of tsunami relief volunteer work and I am sick and need help. The Red Cross has plenty of money but as they told me “ we do not help AMERICANS”. Who the hell gave them the money - Americans did - and they will not even talk to me on the phone.

What is the RED CROSS doing with this money - How much interest is that money receiving - what are their plans for the funds - why have they not used this money after 28 months - and why do they not help Americans that have been physically, emotionally, and financially devastated?

The US government did nothing for AMERICANS that were destroyed by the tsunami - NOTHING. I cannot even get my senators or congress people to answer my mail - why they is no help? The USA spends hundreds of billions on IRAQ, billions on helping Katrina victims, 70 billion a year on Illegal aliens, and wastes billions every year but not one dollar to help someone that has devoted many years of their life to helping others.

The worst part of being in the tsunami was returning to the USA and finding out that I am screwed. President Bush, in his tsunami speech, promised “compassion and generosity” but then he is a liar, as I have seen no compassion from this government.

Forgotten Victims of the Tsunami

After ten years of teaching Geography at USF and ten years of teaching Astronomy at Hillsborough Community College, Professor Aruffo wanted to help other people in the world. He sold his condominium and moved to Thailand to volunteer in the Burmese refugee camps in Thailand - little did he know that his life would take a disastrous direction. A year before the tsunami he moved to Phuket Island, Thailand to live and he volunteered with World Vision International in Phuket.
He was also the director of an environmental organization that he founded, Coral Reef Institute. He assessed and monitored the coral reefs in the Andaman Sea as a volunteer Team Scientist for Reef Check. His favorite volunteer service was teaching Thai children and teachers to speak English. Three months before the tsunami, while on vacation, he was hiking to Base Camp on the side of Mount Everest - in the peak of health and energy. A month before the tsunami his students were on the beach with him involved in an environmental beach clean up. A month later on December 26, 2004, the tsunami struck - on that day, his life took a downward direction.

The tsunami struck and bodies were strewn all over the beaches and people and bodies trapped in basements. Boats were overturned and people were trapped. While most tourist scrambled to leave the tsunami zone after the tsunami, Aruffo stayed for the long clean up and recovery effort. Henry Aruffo is a PADI certified rescue and wreck diver instructor and volunteered to retrieve bodies and stop the oil and gas leaks from overturned boats. He was swimming in the putrid waters of death. Little did he know that these waters might eventually end or shorten his life. Aruffo and his team were involved in over 60 bodies being recovered - many of them young children and babies. A sight he will never forget but hopes to someday.
Within a few days, he was unable to walk from the massive ear infection. Today he has permanent partial loss of hearing in his ears.
He was able to work full time for a year - devoting 50 - 70 hours a week to environmental and social recovery. He was a Tsunami Team Relief Leader for World Vision International - a humanitarian Christian organization devoted to helping people and children in economically disadvantaged countries. Some of his students in his English classes were lost in the tsunami and he devoted his time to helping those that survived.

His second case of Dengue Fever (Break Bone Fever) came 9 months after the tsunami - his bones still ache from the fever. His first case was when he was working in the Burmese refugee camps in Northern Thailand, two years earlier. His eyes sockets and bones all felt like they had been broken and there is no cure. A first case of Dengue fever can be severe but a second case can be fatal and there is no vaccination for Dengue Fever. He thought he was going to die he was in so much pain.

He found out he had contracted hepatitis from being in the putrid, bacteria infected waters as his liver swelled and caused more discomfort. He has not slept a decent night’s sleep since the tsunami - he is seeing a sleep doctor and awaiting a further sleep testing when funds become available. Right after the tsunami, he had violent nightmares about being trapped under the water, diving in a basements searching for survivors. During one rescue attempt, he was forced to disconnect his scuba gear in a flooded basement when it became tangled in the hanging electric wires connected to dead body floating above him, trapped in the same wires. After a while, his body just stopped allowing him to sleep to avoid the having nightmares.

After a year, major depression set in with what his doctors diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He continues to this day in a major depression even with medications and treatments. He returned to the states when he started having suicidal thoughts, his depression was so severe. Now, he survives one day at a time.

His eleven “adopted children” at the Tsunami Orphans ‘Happy Home’ in Phuket miss him but he had to return to the USA for medical treatment. To the children and teachers in Phuket, Professor Aruffo was their Champion. His children made a poster and took photos of themselves asking him to get better and come home to Thailand soon. Their sign said “we love you Professor Aruffo, get healthy, please come home, we love you”. While he is attempting recovery here in the USA, he worries that his children have no one to teach them English. He promised he would return soon but his treatments may take up to 48 weeks once treatments begin. He promised his eleven-tsunami orphans that he would help them all speak English and to tutor them so they would all be able to get into university or trade school. He wanted them to have something positive to look forward to, a good life, even though their life had not started good by losing their families to the tsunami disaster.

Now he stays in a small rented apartment in Saint Petersburg, isolated and alone, trying to recover from his two years of tsunami volunteer service in Thailand. He is not half the man he was before the tsunami. He worries about paying his mounting medical bills without insurance. While hurricane, tornado, and flood victims get some assistance from their government - there is no help for a forgotten victim of the tsunami. Now after years of distinguished volunteer service in Thailand, he returned home to Florida sick, tired, abandoned, and seeking any government assistance. In Thailand, he was given a medal for his efforts in the Tsunami Relief Operation. Here in America that medal will not buy his groceries or pay his medical bills. His response from the government was negative - both Florida senators sent form letters, Kathy Castor, his congressperson did not follow up on his requests. President Bush did not even send a form letter. He continues to pay his mounting medical bills. He is unable to work from depression, pain, his brain is confused by the medications he is taking, and his savings are dwindling.

He contacted the American Red Cross and they informed him that they still have not spent over $300,000,000 collected for the tsunami relief fund but that they do not help American victims of the tsunami. He is angry with the America Embassy in Bangkok that did nothing for American survivors while watching the European countries come to the immediate aid and assistance of their citizens.

A month before he departed for Thailand, the USF Alumni Association honored Aruffo with the Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award for his dedication to USF and the world community. He showed true dedication to the world community with his volunteer tsunami service and has demonstrated that he was, indeed, worthy of such an award. Now he is a socially withdrawn with major illnesses and just trying to financially survive back in the expensive USA.

There are probably other stories like this one. Survivors and volunteers of the tsunami are scattered all over the world. Many suffering for their service to humanity - each wondering when the nightmares and the illnesses will end - wondering when the smell of death will get out of their noses - each surviving in their own way. They are the forgotten and ignored victims of the tsunami. Proud to have helped in such a noble cause but now suffering in their own dreams and in pain. They were there when others needed help now they have none when they need help.