Pattaya visit: December 2013 – January 2014
I have recently returned from a six week
visit to Pattaya, originally it was intended to be for five weeks but thanks to
the protests in Bangkok
it had to be extended for a further week.
We attempted to visit as many children as
possible that are sponsored through our scholarship scheme but found many of
them not to be at school, the unusually cold weather of a night in Pattaya, on
some nights the temperature dropped as low as 17c, meant that many children were
off sick with coughs and colds and with the schools spread over all parts of
the city it was not possible to arrange a return visit as both school exams and activities and the
horrendous high season traffic congestion in Pattaya meant that time did not permit.
For all of the children we did catch up with we have photos for their sponsors
and these have either been sent out of are in the process of being dispatched.
We organised the party for the kids at the
Hauy Phong Children’s home on December 23rd and as usual this was a
great success, the kids decided on the food that they wanted, this year they
chose sushi (of sorts), pork, noodles, rice, fish, and Thai sausage. There was
entertainment from a boy band made up of boys from the home and traditional Thai
dancing by a group of girls. After the kids had eaten their meal each received
a gift selected by ticket number taken from a Christmas tree. This was then
followed by a very noisy disco to finish off the evening. The link to the
photos of the evening can be found at the end of this report and on our
website.
The student’s party at school number seven
also had a few children missing through illness and many of the kids at the
party were wearing coats and jumpers. Those that were there enjoyed some games
and music before their meal of chicken, rice, pork, and Thai style spaghetti.
Following this all the kids received gifts, which included a warm blanket and a
food parcel to take home. Over the next couple of week we visited the students
at other school and took them their gifts and food parcels and found that like
schools in the central part of the city there were many off sick.
We carried out lunch and shopping trips at
the request of sponsors and on almost every trip the kids asked for a warm coat
or a blanket, in two cases the boys we were with chose to spend some of their
money a thick bed cover. Most of the kids also chose to spend some of their
money on food to take home to the family, the cost of food has continued to
rise as has clothing; this puts a considerable strain on families already
living in poverty. Our monthly food packs go some way to alleviating the
problems of feeding the kids and are intended as a supplement to the families
own resources.
I had the pleasure of visiting some of the
families supported by ‘Kates Project Trust’ (KPT), a small charity working with
families from the poorest of slums. My thanks to Khun Noi for giving up her
time on two consecutive Sundays to enable me to visit the families. In all the
years I have been visiting Pattaya the slums that ‘KPT’ are helping in are some
of the worst that I have seen.
During the visits to the slums with Khun
Noi we offered to buy extra clothing and shoes for the kids that are sponsored
through PSK and to increase our monthly food support for the work that ‘KPT’ do
in the slums. All of the kids and their families I met were delightful and
happy despite living in abject poverty. In all bar one of the families the
children were being cared for by their grandmother, the mothers being nowhere
in the picture of the child’s life.
The party for the slum kids was hosted by
the kids at the Baan Khong Por Home (BKP), the BKP kids joined in the games
with the kids from the slums, but when it was time for food it was the BKP kids
who did the serving up and dishing out of the ice-cream. All of the kids from
the slum received a gift and a take home food parcel. It is planned that the
kids from BKP will extend their contact with the kids from the slums and
arrange other activities with them. For the BKP kids’ party a visit to the
Sheep Farm and Zoo and a meal will be arranged, owing to staff shortages at the
home over Christmas and New Year this was not possible to do during my visit.
During my visit I was able to visit many of
the kids who we have helped during the year. As usual top of the list during
2013 was food and clothing and bedding, we have also paid for the snacks at
school for many of the children who otherwise would not have anything to eat
from 7am until 5pm. Many of the families we are helping to feed and clothe
their kids have been hit very hard over the past twelve months as jobs in the
area which rely on the tourism service industry have been lost. The continuing
political upheaval in Thailand
has resulted in thousands of tourists cancelling their visit to Thailand
in favour of more politically stable countries.
We have been able to welcome sponsors who
have visited Pattaya and met their children and we encourage this if a sponsor
is in the city. All we ask is a week or more notice so we can arrange with the
school that the child is free during a school day. Likewise with sponsors that
ask us to arrange in their absence a birthday or Christmas treat of lunch and
shopping for the child, we are happy to do so although it may not always be
possible to arrange it for the actual birthday and with the cost of eating out
in even the fast-food outlets increasing rapidly we suggest that instead of a
meal an ice-cream treat and shopping is the best use of their monetary gift.
At Baan Khong Por Children’s Home during 2013 we have been able to supply new
bedding, clothing, shoes, two computers, meet the monthly food bill for the
kids, plus other ancillary items that in a home with thirty two young kids living
there are always going to need replacing. I spent Christmas Day at the Home
with the kids and as always it was great fun watching the kids opening their
gifts although clearing up the wrapping paper afterwards did not appear to be
met with as much enthusiasm! I visited the home on other occasions during my
visit and thank all of the staff there for their friendliness and facilitating
my visits. With often just three staff for 32 kids things do get a bit hectic
and the staff there work very hard to keep the kids safe and well.
Also our thanks to the Scholarship Team of
Liz, Suky and Boonying in Pattaya, Liz and Suky work under a lot of pressure
and although Suky is designated as the Scholarship Team Leader she often has
translation work for other part of the MERCY office to carry out putting her
under tremendous pressure when she also has to liaise with the schools in
trying to keep track of 200+ children as well as buy the food for the monthly
food drops, pack it and deliver it. Certainly nobody does it for the money, as
Suky said to me one day “If I wanted to earn good money I would not work in Thailand”.
Unfortunately again this year some schools
were less than helpful on many occasions, appointments were made to visit the
school to either meet the kids or to take them out on behalf of a sponsor only
to find when we arrived that the message had not been passed to the relevant
teacher and the child could not be located amongst the 1500-1800 children in
school. On one occasion we visited a school to take two girls shopping and
although the appointment had been confirmed a couple of hours earlier we
arrived at the school to find the children ‘missing’. It took Suky forty-five
minutes to locate the children, multiply this many times during the year and
you can see how much time is wasted through the lack of cooperation from some
schools.
I was able to make a visit to a training
session of the Crocodile Kids Football Club who we were able to help buy
football strip and equipment last May. The voluntary project is run for kids
from the slums in the Jomtien area of Pattaya of all ages, and all abilities
and it was good to see how the club is thriving with new members.
I also visited a Youth Prison where one of
our 14 year old students is serving a two and a half year sentence for
possession of drugs. It appears that he was given the drugs to conceal by an
uncle when they were stopped at a police check point. The boy looked scared and
probably rightly so as he is quite small and in a facility with 300+ other boys
age 11-17 years. We were shown the very basic clothing and toiletries that
prisoners are issued with and here again the boy complained of being very cold.
We are trying to get some more clothing to the prison for the boy but have been
told that only basic items the same as that the prisons supply are permitted.
We wish to thank everyone who has supported
the charity throughout 2013 and in doing so have enabled us to help so many
kids. We are never going to be able to solve the problem of poverty in Pattaya
but we can give many kids the opportunity of an education which is the key to
breaking the cycle of living in the slums and an opportunity to a better life.
Don Ford.
Treasurer / Trustee.
Christmas Day with the kids at Baan Khong Por: http://streetkids.smugmug.com/Baan-Kong-Por-Home/Baan-Khong-Por-Christmas-2013/n-Bb9fG
