Thanks to the enormous generosity of our supporters and friends, we were able to respond to the tsunami with one of the biggest emergency relief operations in recent history. Here we look at the impact of the disaster, and describe the difference you helped us make in the toughest circumstances.

Subair Ibrahim, a local UN Refugee Agency worker living on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, will never forget the morning of December 26th, 2004. He was sitting at home with his wife when the first wave hit his village.

‘People started running past the house, some injured, some without clothes, shouting “the sea is coming, the sea is coming,”’ he says.‘There was panic everywhere. We began to run in-land.’ Life for Subair and countless others had just changed forever.A thousand people in his village were now dead. Many familiar faces – those of good friends and neighbours – would never be seen again. The streets he knew so well, the busy shops and meeting places, the homes full of life, were gone with the retreating sea. For now, all had been replaced with loss and grief.

But for the sake of other survivors, Subair could not afford to reflect for long. He was about to play a role in one of the greatest relief efforts in history.

Subair Ibrahim in the yellow T-shirt during non food relief item distribution just after the Tsunami. © UNHCR/P. Ganapragasam

No time to lose

Once Subair had made sure his family was safe, he began a survey of Ampara, his devastated district. Eventually he was able to reach a remote area, cut off by a fallen bridge. There he found thousands of newly homeless people, exposed all day to the blazing sun. As soon as he could he returned with truck loads of plastic sheeting and household essentials for desperate families.

In the chaotic aftermath of the disaster, the rest of our experienced staff – many of whom, like Subair, had only narrowly escaped death themselves – also set about the daunting task of organising a response. There was no time to lose. On the ground – ready to go

The UN Refugee Agency was, in fact, uniquely placed to begin meeting the challenge. We do not usually respond to natural disasters but we have been working in the country for nearly 20 years, giving assistance to up to 400,000 internally displaced people who have been made homeless by the long-running civil war.

We had long experience of working with the Sri Lankan Government and our partner organisations in the country. And this – combined with having an established storage and distribution network – meant we could begin quick and efficient distribution of aid to where it was most needed.

Within hours, the doors of all our warehouses on the island were open and the first loads of emergency supplies were being dispatched for delivery. A massive international co-ordination effort was already underway. Within hours too, donors were on the phone, asking how they could help – early signs of the unprecedented show of concern and generosity to come.

It was a matter of helping in any way we could – emptying our warehouse supplies into trucks, helping people to transport the dead and injured, and organising aid deliveries to communities in need.

TOP: A tsunami-displaced family move into a new temporary home built by UNHCR in Ampara District, Sri Lanka, after living in a tent for months. © UNHCR/Catherine Fitch