Almost one year on, Agence France-Presse has spoken to 11 people whose lives were forever altered by the disaster -- the bereaved, the survivors, the aid workers and community leaders -- about their experiences and how their lives have been affected since. Their moving stories are tales of terror and tragedy, of grief and despair, but also of faith and hope.

Each first person account comes with a portrait photograph, and we will be moving a graphic showing the devastating reach of the tsunami.

The volunteer

CALANG, Indonesia: Irco Saputra, 24, a Red Cross (PMI) volunteer working in the town of Calang, located on a peninsula and surrounded by beach on three sides, in Aceh Jaya district, where only 1,000 people of some 8,000 survived the tsunami.

"We heard people starting to scream that the sea water was coming. The beach became dry -- the wave was going in the opposite direction to normal. Somebody said to us, what are you doing? Run! If the beach dries up it means a wave is coming.

Before I could reach the mountain I saw the wave coming. The first wave was three metres high and it seemed to break down the houses before it actually hit. We climbed up a mango tree ... Another wave came and it hit us. I tied myself to the tree with a sarong. The others were swept away by the third wave, which swallowed everything in its way. It was higher than the tallest coconut palm in Calang.

I lost my mind -- I couldn't think of anything. Then the tree collapsed. The water carried me along and I was taken further into the mountains. I found a door and stood on it -- and I could see all around. That's when I knew there was nothing left.

After a 12-day hike, and a boat ride, I got to Banda Aceh but came back three days later with Red Cross workers. We started evacuating dead bodies. We collected them in one place and later buried them ... They were covered with debris so it took time to get them out. We collected bodies for weeks. It was difficult because we had no equipment -- no trucks or bulldozers.

I won't say I'm proud of myself, but this is what we are doing now: bringing prosperity and safety to people. The tsunami was proof of the almightiness of god. It was just a second, and we lost everything."

The orphan

BAAN NAM KHEM, Thailand: Three-year-old Hatachai "Deem" Hupom was orphaned when his single father died in this poor fishing village in Phang Nga province. He now lives with his grandmother, Serm Mokdipron, 52, who also lost her husband. She tells his story.

"Deem was inside the house with me when the tsunami came. We were lucky, because the back of the house was destroyed, but the front was OK. His father worked in Bang Sak as a cook in a hotel restaurant. He died in the hotel.

My husband also died. When we all ran away from the waves, he went back to try to help people. Then a little while later, my granddaughter saw his body floating by. At first, after the tsunami, Deem cried all the time, calling for his daddy. Now he is better.

We haven't received much support. World Vision (an aid organisation) is giving us 1,000 baht (about 25 dollars) a month for five months. We've received the first three months so far. I make Thai sweets to sell on the street to support us. But the government hasn't given us anything. I went to the education ministry, but they said that children born since 2002 would not receive any support. They don't care whether a child has been orphaned, they only care about the age.

He's still too scared to swim in the ocean -- even if we put him on a float, he won't go in. He thinks his dad is still in the water."

The 'miracle baby'

PENANG, Malaysia: Thulasi Suppiah is Malaysia's "miracle baby", who was saved from the tsunami by a floating mattress, and turned one-year-old on December 4. Her father A. Suppiah, 56, was working at his beachside restaurant when the waves hit Miami beach.

"I was clearing a table when suddenly there was this loud noise and the sea was boiling with white foam. Within minutes the waves came crashing. I was pushed against the rocks. I did not know where my wife and my 22-day-old daughter were. I thought I was going to be drowned.

My wife and myself were swept by the swirling waters that rose some 10 metres (30 feet) like an angry serpent. I grabbed a pillar of the cafe, but I was pushed against the rocks. I pushed my way to the room where our baby Thulasi had been sleeping.

I screamed to my wife, 'Thulasi is not here'. My wife started crying and I prayed to God. Suddenly the waves hit the shore again. I held my wife tightly and grabbed a pillar. To our surprise, the mattress with Thulasi floated back. She was still sleeping. We grabbed her and quickly made for higher ground.

My business is ruined but since God saved my daughter, I believe God will save my family again. I will organise a beach party to commemorate the tsunami on December 26. We do not fear the sea. We will not leave this place. My daughter does not cry in the water. She is not afraid of the sea."

The village chief

KEUDE PANGA, Indonesia: Ibrahim Haji, 65, a shop owner and chief of this village in badly-hit Aceh Jaya district for 36 years, lost his family and home.

"It was very chaotic ... My wife and children ran into a building. The water hit the house and it collapsed, and they drowned. I was about to enter the house when it hit. I swallowed a lot of water and heard someone say, 'The chief has passed away'.

But I was pushed up by the water which carried me to the mountain. A block of wood hit me in the back and broke one of my ribs. We were on the mountain for 11 days without proper food. The army found us and they had food and a doctor, and took us to Banda Aceh by helicopter.

I came back here at the end of April to repair my house and shop and I reopened in May. I felt so sad when I came back here. I lost my wife, my son and grandchild and I had no cash to invest. At first I focused on rebuilding my shop and not so much on my job as chief.

Now, I manage almost everything. I manage the people to work, clean up the environment, make plans to rebuild the mosque. My relationship with my people is very close. A month after I came back, the older people in the village told me that I had to marry this woman, as she would be best for me ... 'She is there, all you have to do is say yes, don't think about gold (as a dowry) or food!' So they prepared chicken, fruit, rice, all here on the day I was married -- May 23. This woman had been married to someone else in this village but she lost everyone."

The fisherman

SUNDIKULI, Sri lanka: Y. Rasentheran, 43, from Sundikuli village in the northern Tamil Tiger-held zone of Sri Lanka, but who is now living in a temporary shelter.

"I lived with my wife and six children aged between eight and 19. On the day of the tsunami, we were all away from the house; my eldest son was at work, the other children were at school, my wife (Muthularmy, 37) was at the market and I was repairing my nets when the waves came. I heard people shouting 'run' -- so I ran. Later we found all of us had survived. But our village was destroyed and our house was gone. My boat had vanished. I had used it to fish at sea, where I caught many kinds of fish.

We lived for some months in a school and then we moved to this temporary home (in Kallaru transitional camp about four kilometres from Sundikuli). My children now go to school in the camp and the government is building us a house. I hope to be able to move into it before the anniversary of the tsunami.

I have been given a boat by the NGO, Sewa Lanka. But the problem is that I have no nets nor an outboard motor. I am now making small nets for the shrimping season which begins in mid-December. We catch shrimps close to shore so we do not need a motor for the boat. I hope to make enough money from the shrimps to be able to buy proper nets.

On the anniversary of the tsunami we will light an oil lamp. We are Hindus and we will go to the temple to pray. We never want to live through a tsunami again."

The religious leader

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: H.A. Sanusi Hanafi, 67, is chairman of the committee at Baituraman mosque in Banda Aceh, which was used as a morgue in the aftermath of the tsunami.

"The streets were a mess -- they were covered in trees, the ruins of houses, cars, and there were dead bodies everywhere. Hundreds of people were here. By one o'clock they had found around 200 bodies -- and that was only from around the mosque.

The next day nothing had changed. The bodies were still lying here and more bodies were on the street. There were dead bodies everywhere. The army and volunteers cleaned up the mosque ... and after that it filled with those who lost their homes.

After one week, the roads were cleared and people could leave to try and find their families. People started to move from here. When there was no one left, we cleaned up the mosque inside so we could pray again.

From the end of January, the activity here became almost normal again, with prayers five times a day and sermons to remind people that this was a trial and that they should stay pious.

Because this mosque is famous, many foreigners came to us. They said they would give aid to the mosque but they never came back again ... There were a lot of promises, but we have seen little money.

A lot of people were traumatised. Because I stayed all the time at the mosque, if there was a problem, I prayed and gave it back to god. I realised that this was a test from God to see how pious we are."

The young soccer fan who moved a nation

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Seven-year-old Martunis triggered an outpouring of aid from Portuguese football officials and players after he was pictured wearing their team colours after surviving for nearly three weeks alone after the disaster. His father Sarbini, 37, tells the story.

"He was playing football when the quake happened ... He got in a car with his sister and mother and another relative of mine was driving. The car overturned. Martunis was carrying his sister and handed her to his mother and then they were separated, he lost them.

The first night he came home, he told me everything, but now he has forgotten everything ... He held on to some kind of wood ... later he saw a mattress and he stayed on that for 20 days. He was caught in the mangroves with the ocean on one side and a river on the other.

He was surrounded by dead bodies. He survived on instant noodles and bottled water that he found floating around him. People from the village nearby were looking for dead bodies and they saw him -- this skinny, dark, dirty little body.

They thought he was a tuyul (a kind of ghost) so they were afraid of him. But he said to them: 'Please don't run away! I am a person, not a tuyul!' But this made them even more afraid. Two days later, they came back and went closer to him and realised he was human.

I felt so very happy (to have him back). He was a very silent boy before the tsunami. Now he talks more. After the publicity, he was flown to Portugal to meet the team. He played football with Portuguese boys and he scored two goals. He wants to play for Portugal when he grows up."

The rebel negotiator

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Teuku Kamaruzzaman, a negotiator for the GAM separatist rebels, was imprisoned in Bandung, 2000 kilometres (1240 miles) away, when the tsunami hit, but is now an advisor to the reconstruction agency overseeing the rebuilding of Aceh.

"On the fourth day after the tsunami, one of the prison staff got a text message from my wife, saying that she and our daughter had survived, but half of Aceh was doomed. I cried -- it had been my biggest hope, to hear from my family.

I later heard from the media that meetings (to negotiate a peace deal with the Indonesian government that was eventually signed in August) were taking place ... I felt like I had lost an important moment in my life, because I had been a negotiator. Without the tsunami, it could still have been done but the tsunami was a big factor in the process itself.

When I finally returned to Aceh (in August, after being released as part of the peace deal) I saw destruction, great destruction. I thought that I should have been in Aceh when it happened. In my own house, there were 15 dead bodies that were swept inside ... My wife is still suffering from the trauma.

I have big hopes, especially with this government. They have a deep concern with peace in Aceh. This is the beginning of a long process. The agreement is only a text -- the important thing is the implementation of the agreement. But the communication that has been built by both sides is very good.

Our main target now is to speed up reconstruction. We have to do this for our own people, the Acehnese people."

The supermodel

PRAGUE: Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, 25, lost her boyfriend, British fashion photographer Simon Atlee, while they were on holiday in Phuket, Thailand.

"Losing my boyfriend was the hardest thing that happened. I now realise that every single moment in life is very precious. In the next second everything might go away.

I have resolved to live fully. My priorities have changed and I am glad for that. The tsunami put things into perspective. Modelling is now my second job. Before, it was my first. Now my priority is helping children. I established the Happy Hearts fund in the states. It helps children affected by the tsunami and other children that have gone through hardship.

When something bad happens, it gives you an opportunity to take a new path in your life. It is very strange. Such a bad thing happened, but you can not say it was all black or white. You have so many people who died but the event also created a lot of love and friendship around the world. It drew me closer to my family for example.

I do not try to be stuck in the past. I try to live in the present and look to the future. In the past my ambitions were work-related, I used to plan for what was ahead. Now I enjoy every moment. Simon used to say that a day without laughter is a day wasted. All of us (that knew him) try to live that way. We try to live in the present. What happened was a reminder of how fragile our lives are."

The poor widow

TELWATTA, Sri Lanka: Nanda Kulasena, 48, from Telwatta, southern Sri Lanka, lost her husband -- the family's breadwinner.

"The waves hit us when we were in our house. Six of us managed to get away, but three did not. This is my son who died, this is my daughter, the one in the wedding dress, who was washed away (pointing to a photograph). This is my husband. He also died. He was a painter.

I am now alone trying to help my family. We are six left now. We live in a transition camp. Because my house was in the 100-meter zone (from the coast in which construction is forbidden by law). I am not allowed to rebuild. People just across the line are allowed to rebuild and also they are given money to help them buy materials. We are given nothing.

I come here to the train station every day because tourists come to this place. This is where the people (up to 1,500) died in the train when the tsunami hit. Tourists come here to take pictures of the train.

That man (pointing) sells photos of the train and the bodies to the tourists. He makes enough to live on. There are many of us now trying to live off the tourists. I beg from them. I have no option. Before my life was filled with happiness and we were well off. My husband made a good living.

Now I just cry, cry, cry. I have become a beggar."

The man who kept his faith

NAGAPATTINAM, India: Haja Karim, a 45-year-old Muslim survivor from Chilladi Nagar village, where 178 people died, in India's worst-hit Nagapattinam district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. He now lives in a temporary shelter.

"The tsunami took away the elderly, the young and the weak. At the same time it also killed the strong and able-bodied people. Not one section or people from any religion were spared.

I believe a time comes when Allah punishes people for their wrongdoings. He tells us to mend our ways. People have become selfish, greedy and money-minded. I think the tsunami is a warning from Allah.

I did not lose faith despite my sister being killed in the disaster. Even though my livelihood is lost I still believe in Allah. There is no other way.

My family, including four children, are now in a temporary shelter in Nagapattinam town. People from all religions are staying here sharing the same grief and burden. All our homes have been destroyed. We do not know where our next meal will come from or our future. In such a scenario one can only pray to God and go nearer to him than getting further away.

I have only one regret. I cannot perform my prayers inside the 120 square foot (10.8 square metres) shelter as it is not clean. So we (all the Muslims) have built a small prayer room inside the camp. I believe Allah is testing our strength. At the end of the day he will protect us."

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