December
26, 2004 is an unforgettable day for Tamils for years to come. Devastating
Tsunami on this day changed the lives of thousands of people within minutes.
TVI
strives to cover what matters to Tamil Canadians as much as possible.
However, TVI was not prepared to handle such a large tragedy within a
short time. TVI staff and
volunteers put in a lot sleepless days and worked tirelessly to bring as much
information as possible to its audiences.
TVI also covered most of the events that were happening in
Toronto
. We started covering
the events even before all the mainstream media.
In certain cases, TVI provided the news coverage for them.
On
top of this there is an outpour of audiences trying to donate money to help the
people in need. TVI team responded by assembling some staff and volunteers to
collect money. We were moved by
the amount of people that stayed in long queue to donate money.
All of us at TVI are proud to be serving such a wonderful community and
to have such a wonderful audience.
We collected $668,266.00 within ten days.
This was handed to a Canadian registered charity organization called CAFTAAR
(Canadian Foundation for Tamil Refugee Rehabilitation) within 10 days.
This money was in turn used by CAFTAAR with the help of TRO to implement
projects that helped our people who were affected by the Tsunami.