Managing Director - Chantalle Lacroix (Netherlands
Chantalle watched the devastation that the Boxing Day tsunami brought to Southern Thailand on TV in the Netherlands and decided, with a friend, that she would fly out to Phuket and help with the relief efforts. She arrived 2 months later in February 2005 and headed up to Phang Nga province to work as a volunteer at the Tsunami Volunteer Center (TVC) in Khao Lak. During this time Chantalle helped with debris removal, re-building houses, painting and building boats.
In September 2005 Chantalle joined up with Johannes Egger and Saundra Schimmelpfennig to create D-TRAC (Disaster Tracking Recovery Assistance Center).
Chantalle soon came into contact with UNICEF, Child Line and Plan Thailand, and began collaborating with them and other child protection agencies until eventually ChildTRAC became a separate entity, receiving its own funding to conduct various research projects relating to the well-being of vulnerable children. Currently, Chantalle is focused on building up awareness and developing corporate relationships within the Netherlands.
Operations Director - Carly Festa (Thailand)
Carly began her career at a radio station but it didn’t take her long to decide to travel out to Thailand to complete a TEFL certificate. From there, she moved to Khao Lak and joined the Tsunami Volunteer Centre (TVC) to help with the post-tsunami relief work. Within months, she had been made responsible for volunteer orientation and became assistant manager of the Ban Nam Khem housing re-build.
The Pakistan earthquake (2005) was her next challenge, and accompanied only by one other person, she visited decimated villages and temporary camps to help rebuild community’s lives.
She returned to Thailand to head up two major projects for D-TRAC: the Water and Sanitation project (commissioned by the American Red Cross) and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS) project. Since then, after another two years of working in care and fundraising for charities in Australia and the UK, Carly has once again found herself back in Thailand, managing ChildTRAC’s projects on the ground and supervising the Thailand team.
IT Director - Timm Jansen (Germany)
Timm volunteered with the Tsunami Volunteer Centre (TVC) after the tsunami, helping the fishermen to build and restore their boats, enabling them to reclaim their livelihoods. Subsequently, his unrivalled IT skills were utilised at D-TRAC before turning his attention to the needs of ChildTRAC. Besides this website he has developed many other systems like the 'Tsunami Orphans Database' and an intra net for the ChildTRAC team, completely free of charge. Devoting valuable time and effort Timm enabled ChildTRAC to allocate funds previously required for IT directly to the projects instead. He continues to support the organisation despite commitment to a full-time job and his Diploma studies in Computer Science.
ChildTRAC's team in Thailand now
24 hours a day 7 days a week ChildTRAC's amazing team offer immediate assistance to the Burmese communities in Phang Nga province.
The original ChildTRAC Tsunami Orphans team
More than 2000 children were identified by them. They still frequently assist the organisation.
