Jan2005report

DECEMBER 2004 / JANUARY 2005 VISIT REPORT.

I have recently completed a month long visit to Thailand to visit all of the projects that we are working with. The visit was of course overshadowed by the terrible Tsunami tragedy that I watched unfold on Thai television with some of the children. Fortunately Pattaya is on the opposite seaboard to that on which the disaster occurred but it did create an air of gloom for most of the visit.

The problems of children living on the streets and others working in the sex trade continues as in previous years, despite a few high profile raids on premises offering children for sex-tourists the sordid business continues because so many people in authority are paid to turn a blind eye. Children from poor families are often sent to look for a customer by their family where he or she can earn in a few hours more than the family can earn in a month. The only chance for these kids to improve their lives is to be given a chance of either an education or to be given a place in a residential home such as the Hauy Pong Children’s Home where they have a chance to learn a trade.

On arriving in Pattaya I was taken to the ‘slum on the hill’. Here five adults live with two young children both two years of age. The slum has no access to mains water or any other service. It is situated alongside a busy main road and is only partially fenced so it is a never-ending job for the 3 women to watch that the children do not stray onto the highway. The families survive by recycling items from rubbish bins and on a good day they earn about 100 Baht (£1.50). The first day I visited the families had not had any water for three days as they did not have sufficient money to pay the water truck to fill the three 25 gallon oil drums that they use for water storage.

Both of the children had blisters and cuts to their feet and hands through living amongst the rubble and the youngest boy, Sam, also had an infection on his face and mouth. Jim Duangdun, the voluntary worker who visits the slum three times a week asked that we provide medication for the children and also that we consider helping them with a regular supply of UHT milk. A visit to the doctor confirmed that both children were in need of antibiotics and that both were very undernourished. We have therefore arranged support for the children for the next six months by way of food, drink and medication. Whilst there we also supplied canvas to cover the roof and sides of two of the slum dwellings as protection against both the wind and the rain. We also bought each of the children a small plastic tricycle to encourage them to ride around the slum rather than venture out onto the road. Slum kids photos

The Baan Jing Jai Project:

We have been involved with this project for four years and the project is at present caring for about 80 children in two old houses near the Elephant Farm in Pattaya. The ages of the children range from 4 – 17 years and the split is roughly 50-50 of boys and girls. Most of the children have been rescued from the streets of Pattaya by Piangta Chumnoi (Kroo-Ta), a lovely Thai lady who along with a husband and wife team cares for all the children. It was good to see many of the children who I met on my last visit there had progressed well at school and that all of the children were so happy.

The children start their day at 5.30 am when they wake, shower, have breakfast and then the older ones help get the younger ones ready for school. The school run is a somewhat hazardous affair, whilst some of the children are able to cycle to school Kroo-Ta still has to get more than fifty of them to and from various schools in a battered old Nissan pick-up truck borrowed from a local organisation. After school the children do their homework, eat their evening meal and then can watch television and play music. Their day ends with lights out at 9.30pm.

The Baan Jing Jai Project is self-funding and relies solely on voluntary donations. It costs about 50Baht (75p) a day to feed one child in addition to which there are the costs of schooling to pay. We are hoping to be able to raise funds towards a truck for the project and one suitable for their needs will cost about £9000.

During my last visit there we bought the children some musical instruments as music plays a large part in their rehabilitation from street children. We were therefore delighted when before my visit we received a donation of £500 specifically for more instruments. A shopping trip with Kroo-Ta and a few of the children produced an offer from one supplier of an impressive range of instruments so we added another £200 to the donation and the children now have a wide range of instruments for their musical evenings.

Many people gave me gifts to take to the children at Ban Jing Jai and all of these ranging from teddy bears and toothpaste to soap and sweets were gladly received by the kids. Photos of the Baan Jing Jai Children

The Hauy-Pong Children’s Home.

We have been associated with the home for almost five years and on my first visit there most of the dormitories were ramshackle and needed a great deal of attention. Over the years the Thai government has slowly increased the funding for the refurbishment of the buildings and a few other organisations have also funded various projects. This visit the number of children had increased to 383 as the age range of the children cared for has now been lowered to age six. Apart from one dormitory that is still uninhabitable all of the living accommodation is now clean and tidy and the children themselves have carried much of the improvement work out.

Our annual New Year’s party for the children was arranged for December 28th with a disco and Karaoke. However the King declared three days of National Mourning and Thais were not permitted to take part in any musical entertainment. We asked the children if they wished to postpone the party for a few days or to go ahead without the music. They all wanted to go ahead on the day as planned so with the money we saved by not having a disco we bought each child two extra gifts. The children had the idea to theme the party as rows of street vendor carts which they built with from timber that was lying around and then decorated the carts with balloons and tinsel.

All of the food was laid out on the carts placed around the outside of the dining hall and the children went from one to the other selecting the food that they liked. The meals were finished off with ice cream on bread (a great Thai favourite) and all had an enjoyable evening.

During the last few weeks another 30 children have arrived, some from the areas affected by the Tsunami and others that have been found wandering the streets. The challenge for the home now is to refurbish the remaining dormitory and make it habitable, a project that now has priority, as it needs to be completed before the wet season starts in May. There is still a regular stream of children being brought to the Hauy Pong home who have been picked up from the streets or bars of Pattaya.

Every effort is made to locate members of the children’s extended family to explore the possibility of them being able to take the child into the family. All of the children at the home are given an allowance of 50Baht (75pence) a month to spend on sweets or biscuits. Visitors to the home donate this money.

The home has recently built a new schoolroom and has been able to increase the number of hours of schooling for the younger children. The older children have the opportunity to learn a skill in the workshops and these skills include massage, hairdressing and beauty treatment for the girls to metalwork, upholstery and mechanical engineering for the boys.

Whilst the Thai government have increased their funding to the home some aspects of care are not funded. These include both dentistry and eye care that do not fall within the government’s health scheme. There are a number of children at the home who require dental work and many would benefit from spectacles. We have offered to look at the needs of these children on an individual basis and finance the treatment where we are able. Party Photos

The Mercy Project

The Mercy Project is an initiative that we first became involved with in March 2000. Run and managed by the Victory Church in Pattaya as a non-religious project the husband and wife team of Fred and Dianne Doell work with children from the slums and those living on the streets as well as visiting the children who are in the local prison.

Fred, Dianne and a team of volunteers make visits to the many of the slums of Pattaya to take food and water and to arrange medical treatment for the kids. Many of the children are living in tiny makeshift shacks or often simply under a few sheets of plastic stretched over bamboo poles. Others are living with elderly and disabled family members and often it is the child that has to find work to support the elders.

Two years ago Mercy took a lease on a small house in Pattaya, which they have turned into the street kids home. The home, run by a very enthusiastic young Thai named Doy and his wife is at present caring for 10 children living at the home and provides some basic support for any other street kid or child from the slums that wishes to visit.

Three days a week Doy makes visits to the slums to check on the children along with his guitar, which seems never to leave his side. On my visits to the slums with Doy the children immediately wanted to sing along with Doy and they obviously await his visits with eagerness.

The Mercy Project also manages the school sponsorship scheme that we offer. This scheme enables a child to attend school and provides all of the necessary extras, uniforms, books and study equipment. The children in the sponsorship scheme are either from the slums or from families that are to poor to pay for the education themselves.

The children on the scheme receive regular visits from Doy at their homes where he checks on their living conditions and tries to deal with any specific urgent needs they may have. The children also attend English classes run by Fred Doell and to date all of the children have shown great enthusiasm for learning.

The cost of sponsoring a child varies depending on the age of the child. The cost of sponsoring a child 8 years of age for one year is about £60 and this does not increase until the child reaches 13 years when the cost rises to about £120 a year. These figures also include the cost for a child to attend two four days camps that are held during the school holidays and food at school both in the morning and afternoon.

Given an education these children have the prospect of a much brighter future and some worthwhile employment. I had the opportunity to visit two of the schools with Doy to meet the scholarship students and they were all grateful for the opportunity to learn and the reports from the teachers were encouraging. After school the slum children will go back to their homes where they have to do their school homework by candlelight. Students photos

Anyone interested in further details of the sponsorship scheme is asked to contact us and we will send details of children requiring sponsorship.

On January 8th at the street kids home in Pattaya we held a party for the slum children and also invited all of the scholarship students to attend. Doy and his wife provided the musical entertainment and the children enthusiastically took the microphone and joined in. We provided a good meal for the children finished off with the inevitable ice cream on bread. All of the children received some gifts.

We had asked the scholarship students to provide us with a list of gifts they would like, these ranged from a school bag to shoes. From the money budgeted for the party we allocated 250 Baht (£3.75) for each child’s gifts. Thanks to some impressive bartering at one of the local markets each child received at least two of the gifts they had requested. About 80 children attended the party and at the end of the day everyone went home tired but happy. Slum Kids' Party photos

100% of all donations to the Pattaya Street Kids’ Support Project have been used for the benefit of the children and no expenses have been deducted for administration, the Charity’s Trustees have all met their own expenses and there has been no cost to the charity associated with my visit to Thailand.

On behalf of all of the children that we are helping the trustees send their thanks for your generous support. Should you have any questions regarding the charity please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you wish to make a donation to the charity you are able to do so by Cheque, Direct Debit, Standing Order or by Credit Card through Pay-Pal.