#TsunamiDay2016

Czech supermodel-turned-activist Petra Nemcova's life changed forever on 26 December 2004, when she was caught up in the tragedy of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. She has become a tireless campaigner for disaster risk reduction.

Petra was vacationing in Khao Lak, Thailand with her partner Simon Atlee when the tsunami struck. He drowned, but Petra, whose pelvis was broken, managed to survive by holding on to a palm tree for eight hours until she was rescued by Thai civilians and airlifted to an inland hospital.

She now devotes most of her time to the Happy Hearts Fund, a charitable organization protecting children against disasters that she founded just after the 2004 tsunami. The fund has already helped to rebuild some 150 schools in disaster-affected areas.

Many thanks to our colleagues at the UN News Centre in New York for interviewing Petra when she was there for an event marking the first ever edition of World Tsunami Awareness Day, in November 2016.