Saturday, 13th December 2014
Two brothers orphaned in the devastating Boxing Day tsunami are opening a children’s home in Sri Lanka.
Robert and Paul Forkan, were aged 17 and 15, when their parents were swept away in the 2004 tidal wave.
The teenagers survived the horror during a holiday in Sri Lanka, along with their two sisters Mattie, who was 12 and Rosie, then eight.
Now ten years later the brothers are to return to the country where their parents, Kevin and Sandra, died.
In the New Year the successful businessmen will open and dedicate their first children’s home to their mum and dad, which was funded from their flip flop business, Gandys.
They said they hope the centre in Mau Gama will be the first of many around the world.
Speaking at the company’s office in Southfields, south west London, Robert, now 27, said Boxing Day would be “slightly more poignant” this year on the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
“We spend Boxing Day differently every year,” he said.
“Some years we’ve been out in India volunteering, some years we’ve had a family one in the UK.
“Every day we’ve had to live with it for the last 10 years but it will be slightly more poignant.
“For us that happened 10 years ago, but to be now building our own children’s home, at least something positive will come from it.
“Gandys is a distraction for us and something we’re passionate about. It keeps us busy.”
The family ended up in Sri Lanka after the parents quit their jobs in fashion and sold the family home in Croydon in 2001 in order to travel the world with their children and work on humanitarian projects.
But on Boxing Day in 2004 the family were woken by screams and huge waves tearing through their hotel rooms.
Deadly tidal waves had struck coastlines across Asia after a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Indian Ocean.
Parents Kevin, 54, and Sandra, 40 struggled against the mass of water to get their two youngest children safety but were themselves then dragged off by the sheer force of the water.
Their eldest Robert managed to climb up a building and grab a metal bar, while clutching Paul with his other arm.
“We don’t really like talking about the day as you can imagine,” Robert said.
“It’s not a nice thing to talk about. What we saw that day, you can’t describe in a few words.
“We know a lot of people are fascinated by our story but there were a lot of other people that were there and saw it as well.
“We almost just switch off and focus on the positives.”
Robert and his brother launched Gandys Flip Flops in 2012 and set up the ‘Orphans for Orphans’ movement, to fund children’s projects.
The brothers have been recognised as Exceptional Young Leaders by the Queen and invited to Buckingham Palace to meet Prince William and Prince Harry.
That’s when the Prince reminded them he’d lost his own mum when he was 15. ‘But you have to try and find the silver lining,’ he told the brothers.
Robert said: “We spent years travelling and volunteering across India and the sub-continent and we wanted to do something that uses the values and vision that our parents gave us.”
The brothers said they had a “vision” to build a children’s home in memory of their parents for the tsunami’s 10th anniversary.
Robert added: “We’re going back out to Sri Lanka for the second time since the tsunami. We went back out there last year, when we funded a children’s home for the next three years.
“We’re really excited now to go back there to help finish building our children’s home. In the New Year, we’ll be back to officially open it.”
Asked how he thinks his parents would feel about their children’s work, Robert replied: “They’d certainly be proud of what we’re doing and the hard work we put in.”
From : http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/brit-brothers-who-lost-parents-4810452
