October 2009 update on the situation in Pattaya.

With the lack of tourism caused by the world financial crisis combined with the political unrest in Thailand this year has been particularly difficult for families living below the poverty line.  The adults and sometimes even the children of many families work in the construction and tourist service industries both of which have been badly hit resulting in unemployment for many.

We have received many more requests during this year for help in funding children’s education, for extra clothing and food and also for medical treatments. We have tried to assist wherever possible but with our own charity suffering, as have many others, from a reduction in donations we have had to make some difficult decisions as to where the money was spent.

We now also have the website address: www.slumkids.org.uk as a few people had trouble recalling the main address; either the new address or the original website address can be used as either will take you to our website.

Some of our sponsors have given extra assistance for their sponsored student where needed and we are extremely grateful to them for their concern and support in helping ‘their’ child through a difficult period.

This year I will be visiting Pattaya from 16th December through to January 17th and hope to be able to meet all of the one-hundred and twenty four children on our scholarship scheme as well as the other children from the slums of Pattaya who we are helping to support in various ways, in addition to visiting the Hauy Phong Children’s Home where there are more than three-hundred children being cared for. The visits will also provide first hand information on the various projects we are involved with and to see how they have progressed since my last visit in February.

We are very grateful to Liz Shepherd, Sam and Lhen-Lhen of the Mercy Project who are our eyes and ears on the ground in Pattaya for giving up so much of their own free time to administer the scholarship scheme, to visit the slums, liaise with the schools, and visit the children at home and to take care of visiting sponsors. For them this has been a very busy year and many sponsors have received reports from Liz of her home visits along with photos of both the kids and their homes. With over 120 children on our scholarship program scattered in homes all over Pattaya this has been a ‘labour of love’ especially when we remember that many of these slum dwellers live in unnamed streets with only the vaguest of directions as to how to locate them. Often, when the slum is located, many times it is a matter of trudging around in mud and rubble to reach the home. Here we must also thank Liz’s personal driver Boonying for his never ending patience in trying to locate the slums and his own involvement in not only helping the kids but ferrying visiting sponsors here, there and everywhere to make sure they meet their students. The home visits are an ongoing project and all sponsors will in time receive home visit reports on the kids.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Don Ford

Treasurer / Trustee