On the morning of 26 December 2004, a tsunami struck coastal areas around the Indian Ocean. The sea surge was caused by an earthquake off the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It left more than 280,000 people dead. From the first day on, SOS Children's Villages ran emergency relief programmes. In Thailand, fishing boats and tools were provided to fishermen who had lost their only means of life. Private houses, a kindergarten and a school were reconstructed. At the beginning, the focus was on providing medical care, food and shelter to the victims. The next step was trying to locate surviving relatives of children and finding out if they could take care of the children. Finally, it was decided to build a new SOS Children's Village for children who had lost all their relatives.
SOS Children's Village Phuket has been constructed on a piece of land near the main road towards Phuket City. It is about 6 km from the town centre and 5 km from the beach. Half the plot of land was donated to SOS Children's Villages by the Bankers' Association of Thailand for free. It is located in a middle-class neighbourhood with mostly one-family homes. Next to the property, there is a Buddhist temple. A famous private school is very close, and the nearest public school is at walking distance (about 1.5km away).
The SOS Children's Village consists of twelve family houses where up to 120 children can find a new home, the village director's house, a house for the so-called SOS aunts (women training to become SOS mothers and family helpers who support the SOS mothers and fill in for them when they are sick or when they go on holiday), a service building and a community house with a medical room, a store and an administration area.
There is also an SOS Kindergarten with three classrooms for up to 75 children. The kindergarten includes a multi-purpose hall that can be used for functions of both the kindergarten and the SOS Children's Village. The SOS Kindergarten is open to children from the SOS Children's Village and from the neighbourhood.