Supermodel Petra Nemcova remembers tsunami five years on

Read More ]"/> Petra Nemcova has told how almost dying in the 2004 Asian tsunami has helped her achieve her lifelong dream of helping children.

The Czech-born supermodel, who clung to a tree in Thailand for eight hours waiting to be rescued after the storm hit, told Good Morning America that the disaster had changed her life.

Her then-fiance, British photographer Simon Atlee was killed as the pair were swept from their hotel room.

Now the 30-year-old catwalk beauty has started a foundation to give kids who are the victims of natural disasters an education.

She said: “What I’m doing now, being able to improve, and better lives of children, that’s what I always wanted to do.”

Petra said she first returned to the tsunami zone four months after the disaster.

She recalled: “They [children there] lost their parents or their brothers and sisters. When you looked at those children they didn’t actually look at you. They looked through you. And it was this look without hope.”

As a result, she says, she founded the Happy Hearts Fund and now five years later, the foundation helps children in eight countries, and has renovated schools in Thailand, Indonesia and Peru.

source: Splash News

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