How it all began
We are often asked how this Charity began and for updates on the small kid who was really the start of it all. There were no preconceived ideas to set up a project then go and look for people to help, it was either fate or my own clumsiness that I tripped over a scruffy little street kid who was sleeping on a jetty in Pattaya and it is with this boy ‘Pod’ that the story begins.
‘Pod’ is the kid who was the catalyst for this
project. On Christmas Day 1999 whilst I was
visiting friends working as doctors near Pattaya,
I tripped over and landed in a heap on top of ‘Pod’.
He was homeless, age 10 at the time and was
sleeping on the streets of Pattaya, his hands had
been badly cut and the cuts had become infected,
he was ill with a chest complaint, and for some
reason, which still to this day escapes me, I
decided to try to help him during my last few days
in Pattaya. I ignored warnings from my friends of
“Don’t get involved you will never be able to turn
your back and walk away” and decided that I knew
best. After all what harm could a few days of giving
‘Pod’ food and drink before I returned to London do? It was not to be as easy and straightforward as I thought and it took three trips back and forth between London and Pattaya over the next two months before I found someone to care for ‘Pod’, but this arrangement did not work out, he was badly treated, and ‘Pod’ ran off back to a life on the streets.
‘Pod’ was then arrested for sleeping on the streets and held
in prison for a few days before eventually ending up at the
Hauy Phong Children's Home where I was reunited with him
again, but not before he had run off a couple of times during
his first few weeks at the home. ‘Pod’ was determined not
to stay at Hauy Phong, he wanted to travel around Thailand
to find his family, and made it quite clear that is what he
was going to do, he was very streetwise, the thought of
roaming around Thailand on his own did not concern him at
all. After a lot of cajoling I was able to persuade ‘Pod’ that I
could help him search for his family but to do so I needed
to know where he was and that he was safe. So we came
to an ‘arrangement’, ‘Pod’ agreed not to run away from
Hauy Phong but only if I promised to return to Thailand
to visit him at least three times a year. A deal was struck!
Luckily this arrangement worked out and ‘Pod’ settled at the Hauy Phong during which time we managed to find his mother and reunite them at Hauy Phong. That in itself was a surreal experience with both ‘Pod’ and his mother exchanging no more than a simple Wai and only very few words during their two hour meeting. Because of her circumstances at the time ‘Pod’ was unable to go to live
with his mother until his 15th birthday.
My three visits a year to Hauy Phong continued and I was able to spend each day of my visit to Thailand with ‘Pod’. He made good progress and enjoyed school, whilst still at the Hauy Phong Home so that he could converse better with me he attended an English class in Rayong on Saturday mornings to learn to speak and write English, this was after telling me he was giving up trying to teach me to speak Thai “you very bad you no good learn much”. It was during my early visits to Hauy Phong, where at that time there were almost four-hundred children in care, that I discovered just how many kids there were, just like ‘Pod’ living in poverty and this project was born.
At the age of fifteen after returning to live with his
mother near Bangkok ‘Pod’ continued his education
in a local state school and achieved some outstanding
results. In his favourite subject, Art, he received very
high marks although this came as no surprise to me
as at Huay Phong I would sit for hours with ‘Pod’
whilst he drew very detailed black and white pictures,
many of which I still have today. I had always
promised ‘Pod’ that if he completed his schooling I
would return to Thailand to attend the school’s final
award ceremony. So in April 2007 that is what
happened. Apart from the pleasure of seeing this once
scruffy little street kid standing proudly in his school
uniform receiving various award certificates I
also met some of his teachers and all of them spoke
highly of ‘Pod’ and the effort he had put into his studies.
Although ‘Pod’ has not been supported by this charity,
but rather on a personal level, he has only received the
basic state education. His story is typical of many kids in Pattaya and demonstrates just how important a little support can be.
