Me

another place where they could be protected, the traffickers could have come to take them.
    That woman saw these children’s needs and did whatever she could to help. And the one who dedicated herself to those sixty children during that gruesome tragedy made a monumental difference in their lives.
    After spending a few days visiting the various damaged areas, I returned to Puerto Rico and held a fund-raiser. It was a breakfast in San Juan, where I met business leaders and other distinguished individuals from the island. At the breakfast I gave a testimony of all that I had seen in Thailand. I spoke to them about the pain I felt upon seeing so much destruction and the anger I felt over what was happening, and I invited them to join me in helping these damaged areas. Just like the Swiss, the Norwegians, the Finnish, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Indians were all working to lend a hand. I needed us in Puerto Rico to also do something. Anything .
    And that’s how it went. Those people and more contributed so that we would be able to build homes for some of the victims of the most damaged areas in Thailand. But since I don’t have the knowledge or experience for this type of project, we allied ourselves with Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to building safe and decent homes for people in need in over ninety countries around the world. I spoke with the prime minister of Thailand, and he was very amiable and helped me to find land where these homes could be built. The majority of the funds that were raised for the construction came through various collaborative efforts of my foundation, and then we matched the amount donated. Together with the connections and expertise provided by Habitat for Humanity, and all the local and international volunteers who donated their time in support of our joint efforts, as well as the local people who donated additional construction materials for the homes, we were able to build 224 homes in total.
    It gave me tremendous satisfaction. We all mixed cement and lent a hand. I placed the cement against the bricks and then cut the bricks. The truth is that I had never done construction work before, but there were many people there volunteering who had never laid a brick, either. And we all had a great time. At the time, I didn’t get to see any of the houses fully completed, but I was able to finish a wall that will hopefully remain part of that family’s home forever.
    But that wasn’t the end of the story. After spending a few days in Thailand I did the other part of my duty: I returned to the United States to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show , to talk to the world about what was going on. We ran the video of me visiting one of the most damaged areas, and we showed the people not only what we had done but also everything that was still (and still is) left to do.
    It is likely that there are people who think I did what I did for publicity. If that is the case, let them all think what they like. Maybe a few years back I might have felt the need to justify my actions. But now I know the only thing that really matters is what I think. My only objective was to get people to understand the need for help in these damaged areas, and to show them everything that can be done to help. There are so many ways of helping, and on so many different levels, that I believe everyone should find a way to do it, be it with money, time, or anything else. In any case, I felt so proud of what we had done. Especially when a few months later I had the privilege of going back to Thailand to hand the keys to the family that would move into the home we had begun building during my previous trip, and to meet additional families that would move into some of the other homes we sponsored. That was another day I will always remember. In total, more than one thousand people in two tsunami-affected areas ended up permanently benefiting from the work we had done.
    I could see the expressions of joy in those families when they walked into their new homes for the first time, and I thanked the cosmos for giving me the chance to help. I also gave thanks for having been able to see firsthand how these families were rebuilding their lives with love, which united them and gave them the strength to face and overcome anything.
    Something similar happened at the beginning of 2010 when a brutal earthquake shook all of Haiti. Upon seeing the first images on television, and being intensely moved by