About Eduardo Loigorri

About Eduardo

Eduardo Hello and thank you for taking the time to look up this website. I have written this section to give a little bit of background about why, and what we are trying to achieve with the fund.

To start with let me explain who I am and my association with Thailand. My name is Eduardo Loigorri, I am a software engineer by profession, and co-founder of a UK software company. My first link with Thailand happened over 20 years ago when in 1989 at the age of 19 I decided with a close friend to go away for Christmas somewhere nice and hot.

The saga of how we got there, and the adventures of an 18 and 19 year old during that time would probably warrant a chapter on its own. Suffice to say we both fell in love with the people, the culture and the food. There is something enchanting about the Far East, and Thailand in particular with its deep rooted genuine sense of hospitality, vibrant energetic people, and "work hard, can do" attitude.

I returned there over the years each time exploring a different area until 1992 when my company started doing business in Singapore and I no longer had time to visit Thailand. During 2001 one of our customers retired to Phuket and invited me out to visit him. As soon as I arrived there it felt like the 10 year gap had never happened and like rediscovering an old pair of slippers, I remembered why I had so much taken to the place previously.

The following year, coinciding with a personal desire to take a kind of sabbatical (where I would continue to program code - I called it a "programmatical") I decided to rent a house in Phuket and base myself there for six months. 2001 passed and I eventually decided to build my own house in Phuket as I thoroughly enjoyed being there. By this time I had made many friends mainly with local people, and was thriving developing software there whilst overseeing a major building project.

By mid 2004 the house was finished and I was there spending Christmas when the Tsunami hit. To say I was personally lucky is an understatement. None of my friends lost their lives, although some were physically injured and many have lost their livelihoods.
To see such a hard working independent people dealt a catastrophic blow on this scale has been difficult for me to absorb. To then witness the selfless desire of my friends to help others who had lost more has been truly humbling and fuelled my desire to contribute to that process.
When I saw the opportunity to help in a direct practical way with the long tail boats I began using my skills to help as well.

The reaction back in the UK and Ireland has been as overwhelming as the kindness I witnessed in Thailand. I have had offers of help from many sources; from generous individuals to compassionate corporations all answering my call to help make a difference. For me personally this has been incredibly touching and shows true humanity in a way I have never seen.

The wish of those behind the trust is to supply at least 100 boats within 12 months, with all the equipment to go with them to several fishing villages in the Khao Lak and Krabi regions. It is important that in so doing we do not deprive others of those boats, so we are ensuring we buy them/ commission them to be built in regions not affected by the Tsunami.
We also intend to locate any schools affected by the disaster and offer to replace/rebuild what has been lost especially with regard to IT.

We anticipate that the fund will last for 18 months, 2 years maximum. However, the most important factor I would like to stress is that every penny donated will go directly towards buying boats or IT for local schools. No overhead expenses will be put through the charity. I would like to thank NatWest (our bank), Grant Thorton (our accountants) and Steele Raymond (our solicitors) for providing all their services in relation to the trust free of charge.