More than a year after watching helplessly as a massive tsunami destroyed a village, Lawrence businessman Tom Van Holt thinks he has built a foundation for long-term medical care for survivors living in a remote jungle area in southern Thailand.

“I always wanted to do something where I could help other people,” said Van Holt, who owns a Lawrence moving company. “I was in the tsunami. I feel very close to the Thai people.”

The December 2004 tsunami that struck Thailand and other countries in southern Asia killed hundreds of thousands of people. Van Holt, who was aboard a boat offshore, was not hurt, but he said he would never forget the devastation he saw afterward when he went ashore.

During a recent return trip to Thailand in December, Van Holt worked with the Thai ambassador to the United States to develop a plan for hiring a doctor who will take a mobile medical clinic into the rural jungles around Kuraburi and the Surin Islands.

“We wanted to do something, do it right and be effective,” Van Holt said. “It’s very easy to quantify a doctor’s successes.”

Van Holt is putting $15,000 of his own money along with $5,000 from the ambassador, Kasit Piromya, for the project. The money will pay the doctor for a year and equip him with supplies, a vehicle and a boat, Van Holt said. The doctor will be a Thai, and Piromya will handle the hiring. The doctor also will work at a hospital in Kuraburi. The hospital serves about 30,000 people but currently only has two doctors, Van Holt said.

Tom Van Holt, left, Lawrence, spends time with children from a coastal village in Thailand. Van Holt was there on the anniversary of the tsunami to help establish a doctor training program for the village, the same village where Van Holt was when hit by the 2005 tsunami.

“When I left I felt very good about this,” he said.

After the tsunami last year, Van Holt returned to Lawrence and formed Waves of Relief, a nonprofit organization to help develop jobs for Thais and education for children in the area hit by the tsunami. The organization’s goals were sidelined late last summer when Gulf Coast states were hit by hurricanes. Van Holt redirected the organization’s focus toward relief effort in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Julie Davis, who worked with Van Holt in getting Waves of Relief started last year, described him as very dedicated to helping the Thai tsunami victims. But putting his plans for Thailand on hold to help hurricane victims in the United States also was well received by the Lawrence community, she said.

• 6News video: Lawrence man and Tsunami survivor finds a way to help
• Q&A: Whatever happened to Waves of Relief and its attempt to help victims of the tsunami in Thailand? (09-25-05)
• Tsunami survivor wants to help in recovery (05-25-05)
• 6News video: Businessman starts tsunami relief organization (05-24-05)

“Once that was accomplished, he promised to go immediately back to Thailand to continue to work for the tsunami victims of southern Thailand that he feels so close to,” Davis said.

Once the medical program is established and successful, it can be noted when Van Holt pursues other programs and seeks donations during future fundraising.

“I’m not going to ask for money until I have something in place and the time is right,” Van Holt said. “This is something I’m probably going to be doing for the rest of my life.”

While in Thailand, Van Holt also attended three ceremonies on the anniversary of the tsunami to honor those who were killed. He described the ceremonies as moving but subdued.

“It was quiet and calm,” he said. “There weren’t people breaking down and wailing.”

Van Holt said he planned to return to Thailand later this year.