Dear friends,

A little while ago I was asked to contribute a short piece to the website. In an effort to bring our members up to date with what has been happening to some of us and to give the site more interest and meaning, we had hoped to publish something from the trustees that would put some colour in our blogs. 

I wrote about my feelings and where I felt I was, in relation to my experiences, since the tsunami.

The journey that I tried to describe then, has continued, as it must, but has changed direction again and again my perspective has been altered. I realise my journey will not be the same as others of the group and that it is inevitable that over the years our lives will diverge. Being together was caused by a common tragedy that as our knowledge of it and of our selves develops, we will all hopefully be lead in new and different directions.

 Now we are approaching our AGM and for many people these meetings mark a watershed. Why we are meeting and for what or for whom, is thrown into relief by the nature of the occasion. Our AGM is not just another meeting!

At our next meeting, there may well be some absentees, who have given a lot over the years since Boxing Day 2004. They will be sorely missed.  We hope that there will be many new faces and some fresh ideas, also attending and hopefully just starting to feel a part of something. I hope there might also be a few old friends who, having taken a well-earned rest, from the struggle that has characterised much of what we have tried to do over those years, have popped back to see how things are going.

We will also have Tessa Jowell MP, attending our meeting for the first time and hopefully giving us a chance to get answers to questions that may have been weighing on some of us for a very long time. The presence of the Minister is a great opportunity for us to get those questions off our chests and is also a real sign that we are starting to have a big say in what will happen, not just in respect of our memorial but in other important areas such as the provision of help for UK based survivors. 

I've spent a lot of time and thought on the business of developing the Tsunami Support UK base and profile and working with you to realise the objective that perhaps more than any other, has bonded us together; that is the establishment of a permanent memorial to those we lost.

That work continues and I want to play my part in driving it on to a successful conclusion. At the same time, I realise that we now have many more members and some of us have had little chance to make a real contribution, due to any number of factors. It is important that those people who have so far, watched from the sidelines or perhaps have only recently found out who we are and why we are here, should not feel that they are crashing someone else's club.

I hope I speak for us all but I am emphatic when I say, on my own behalf, that this organisation is here for every one of us and we are each here for one another.

There is no more important purpose.

If anyone wants to step forward and take a more active role in the work we are doing, or has any ideas of how better we might help others and progress the core aims of the organisation and it's members, please don't stand back and defer to the existing trustees. I would be only too happy to help someone else to take on the role I have enjoyed working in, for the last little while. We have a revitalised organisation, with a greater impetus and a deal more prospect of achieving our initial goal of a memorial. We have a growing membership and a rising profile.

While we have purpose and drive, nevertheless we could still use more people and their energy to continue that progress and to contribute to the next chapter in the story.

 Steve Gill, Co-chair, Tsunami Support (uk)