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Indonesia

Tsunami challenge launched - what would you have done?

The British Red Cross is launching an interactive online challenge today, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Asian tsunami this month.

Drawing on the real-life challenges faced by the organisation in the aftermath of the disaster, the Decisions for Recovery game asks the player to make a series of choices about how recovery will be carried out.

For example, with around five million people affected by the tsunami, who should be helped first? And how? Should you prioritise speed of response or sustainability?

Take on the challenge

Short videos showing some of the British Red Cross' tsunami recovery work, which was completed in May 2009, are also included throughout the game.

This is a chance for people to get a deeper understanding of what the Red Cross recovery programme achieved over the last five years.

Put yourself in the shoes of the Red Cross recovery manager, take on the challenge and see how you'd have done!

Road to recovery

Alastair Burnett, disaster recovery manager, said: "The challenges were enormous, the decisions - as people visiting the website will see - were incredibly difficult, but today I feel very proud of what the Red Cross achieved to help rebuild people's lives and, more than that, build them back stronger.

"The support we received from the public was phenomenal and enabled us to mount our largest recovery effort since the Second World War. Now we want to tell the story of how the money people gave was spent and the difference it has made to people's lives."

Tsunami facts and figures

3 - kilometres that the wave travelled inland

9 - number on the Richter scale of the earthquake triggering the tsunami

13 - number of countries affected

20 - meters high - the wave that hit Indonesia

40 - the number of countries with people dead in the tsunami

500 - km per hour the wave travelled at

23,000 - equivalent number of Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs it would take to release as much energy

30,000 - Red Cross volunteers involved in the operation

230,000 - total people that died

500,000 - number of people injured

1,500,000 - children wounded, displaced or lost family

4,500,000 - people who received recovery assistance from the Red Cross

5,000,000 - people who lost homes, or access to food and water