Kids in Pattaya

Report on visit to Pattaya, December 2013 - January 2014

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 23^rd 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.

 

Hauy Phong Home New Year Party gallery: http://streetkids.smugmug.com/Hauy-Phong-Home-New-Year-Party

Christmas Day with the kids at Baan Khong Por: http://streetkids.smugmug.com/Baan-Kong-Por-Home/Baan-Khong-Por-Christmas-2013/n-Bb9fG

2014 New Year Parties Appeal

It's that time of the year again when we ask if you will think about helping the kids that we are working with in Pattaya to have a special day over the Christmas / New Year holidays.

We are launching our appeal to sponsor a child at one of the parties we will be holding in Pattaya and once again this year we have kept the sponsorship at £2.50 a child.

Attached is the appeal as a PDF file and in this there are a number of photos of the kids we are helping. Below this email there is also an update on the work that we have been doing in Pattaya during the year.

If you would prefer to read the appeal in your web browser you can find it on website here: http://www.slum-kids.org/recent-updates/2014-new-year-parties-appeal/

 We hope that you are able to see you way clear to help us to help these kids have a memorable day.

Registered Charity No. 1104335

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

www.slum-kids.org

An update on the year so far.

We are well underway with the planning for the New Year events for the children so this seems a good time to update you with what we have been doing during the year in Pattaya.

As in previous years we have continued to take more children onto our scholarship scheme, although with the current worldwide financial problems we have not had as many sponsors coming onto the scheme, so at the time of writing we do still have a number of children that need sponsoring to enable us to take on more children and give them the opportunity of an education. Details of the children can be seen on our website.

Demands on our food programme have increased during the year as opportunities for employment in Pattaya have fallen, placing many families who were already living in poverty into even greater hardship and unable to feed their kids. Since April our food bill has averaged £1,000 (50,000Baht) a month and we expect that monthly figure to increase during the winter months.

We have started to sponsor a food programme for “Kate’s Project Trust” (KPT) who are working with kids in the slums; we contribute £150 a month for food and water for the kids and also have some of KPT’s children on our scholarship scheme.

We have continued to support the “Share love with a friend” project that supplies severely disabled kids living in the slums with rice and water each month.

Bedding and clothing has also been high on the agenda this year, children’s clothing has substantially increased in cost making it even more difficult for parents to make sure that the kids have warm clothing for the winter.

We have also continued our support at Baan Khong Por children’s home with food, clothes, shoes, and bedding for the kids. I visited the home for two weeks in April and gained a good insight into the needs of the home, I think the days the main water supply stopped functioning and we had to take large empty bottles in the back of a van to try and find a vending machine that sold water brought home the realisation that with thirty children needing showers, daily washing of clothes to be done, water needed for cooking, drinking and the toilets a constant supply of water is absolutely essential.

We also maintained our support for the three-hundred plus kids at the Hauy Phong Children’s Home by paying for sports equipment and clothing.

Unfortunately  due to health issues neither of our lady trustees Kath and Joy will be able to make their usual November visit to Pattaya this year so we will combine the visits they usually make to the various projects with my visit in December and January. They hope to be able to visit early in 2014.

We hope that you will consider supporting our work with the kids, 100% of all money donated is used for the kids, and the charity’s trustees meet all of the administration costs making sure that the kids get the maximum possible benefit from your generosity.
www.slum-kids.org 

Does sponsorship really work?

We are often asked ‘Does sponsorship really work?”

Since day one of PSK the trustees have personally sponsored children, some of the kids have now moved on into work whilst others are still at school. We have been able to follow the progress of ‘our’ kids, both the highlights and the ups and downs that kids living in the slum go through.

We are also privileged to personally know the people running and administering the various projects that we support and we can vouch for the many hours of voluntary hard work that they put into helping the kids have a better life.

You will also see on our website that sponsors have been able to see their kids graduate from college, go onto University, and progress to a level that was once beyond their wildest dreams, for kids in the slums there is very little hope unless they can gain an education and that is where sponsorship steps in and gives that bit of hope. Some of the kids have parents in prison for drug offences where the sentence can be twenty to thirty years, some others have a mother working as a ‘bar girl’ or a parent who is either a drug addict or an alcoholic. In slums where drugs are endemic it is very easy for kids without hope to fall into the same cycle of drug taking, with a scholarship these kids not only get the feeling that someone somewhere is wishing to help them but being able to go to school every day widens the child’s social circle of friends and gives them the extra on the spot support that they often need.

We are always looking for people who are interested in sponsoring a child and if this is you we would ask you to take a look at the sponsorship page on our website: http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/childrenneedingsponsors.html it cost nothing to look and you may just see a child that you are willing to help to a better future. We are always ready to answer any questions that you may have about sponsorships so please do not hesitate to contact us.

100 Years From Today’

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

www.slum-kids.org 

Another fantastic response from the Lady Boys of Bangkok UK shows.

Today we received staggering £5265 from donations made by the audiences of the Lady Boys of Bangkok show touring the UK. This brings the total amount donated this year to £11393.50. On behalf of the kids that the money is helping to feed, clothe and educate we send an enormous vote of thanks to everyone who has donated and to the entire crew of the shows who have wholeheartedly given their support to the charity.

With winter approaching we have already been asked to help supply warmer clothes for the kids as well as having more kids coming onto our monthly food drop program, without your help we would not be able to help as many of these kids as we are doing.

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

www.slum-kids.org 

"The gift of a lifetime"

As the school year is now underway this seems a good time to repost this blog from one of our long-time sponsors.

"Today’s post is an appeal. What I’m asking you to consider is no more than a single drop of water in a pond, but let me explain how that one drop can spread circles across the surface much farther than our eyes can perceive.

Several years ago I learned from a friend about the enormous amount of selfless, ongoing good work being done by the Pattaya Street Kids Support Project, a charity based in England that indirectly has made futures brighter for hundreds of Thai children. More importantly – looking back at the ripple effect just mentioned – it will most likely make a positive difference not only in their lives, but the lives of their children and their children. If you continue to follow this blog you’ll read more stories about my experiences with them, the students and the other kids they help, but let this serve as an introduction, if you will.

Normally it’s not polite to stand here online with a hand out (even if it is on behalf of others), but I wanted to pitch the possibility today of a personal reward I can heartily recommend from my own experience: making the commitment to yourselves that you'll become a child's school sponsor on an on-going basis. This means you'll be giving educational stability to a child and assuring that they'll be able to complete their basic education, giving them essential and valuable tools for a better life; both for them and their families.

For the relatively small sum of around $100USD per school year. you provide nearly everything a child needs for school except their lunch. If you stop to think about it, that's about 25 cents a day over a calendar year. Thankfully very few of us can say we couldn't come up with that. Younger children’s fees tend to be a little less than this, high school students can be a little more. You can pay in a lump sum or monthly, either way - either by bank draft or PayPal (which accepts credit cards).

You don't sign a contract, you just make the decision to do it: contact them through the web site below, let him know if you have any basic preferences (elementary school, secondary school, girl or boy, two from a family if needed, etc.) and - just like expectant parents - you "receive" a child. They know where the needs are most urgent, so I’d recommend letting them arrange for you if possible. If circumstances truly change and you can not afford the upcoming year's funds next year they'll do their best to arrange another means of funding so the child can continue school. One of my students was previously sponsored by a woman who could no longer afford it due to age and health issues.

Please take a moment to look at their web site, if you haven't already – and please note the funds many would use for the polish and flash of a “professional” site have been channeled into something more useful! Administrative costs are almost zero…you'll see that your funds truly DO go where you intend them to go (board members pay their own expenses to visit Thailand, for example), there is reliable transparency up front, and it is NOT a religious organization with an agenda.

OK, so why am I posting about this now, you ask? Because it's the middle of April, the new school year will begin in a few weeks and fees are due very soon. There is a year-round need, but if you've ever considered doing this, the time to act truly is NOW.

If you do, when you look back years from now you’ll be able to think warmly of the far-reaching ripples of hope you started with this single act of kindness today.

You won't regret it."

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

Children needing sponsors 

Video of Hauy Phong Children's Home New Year Party

Hauy Phong party YouTube video

From the mind of a child.

Going through more than 100 hand written cards given to us at the Hauy Phong children's home New Year party we came cross this one which no doubt reflects the feelings of my of the children at the home.

Report on visit to Pattaya December 2012-January 2013

Visit to Pattaya December 2012 / January 2013

I am sure that I heard the sound of a celebration party starting as I left the offices of ‘MERCY Pattaya’ in mid-January at the end my visit. Understandably a celebration would have been in order as my visit threw the office into chaos for the five weeks I was there.

With the increased number of scholarship students even five weeks in Pattaya was not time enough to meet them all. At the students’ party a few children were off sick, a couple with Malaria, and others were involved in different assignments away from the school. At other schools we often turned up at the appointed time only to find that no arrangement had been made to locate the children in time for our visit. At one school we arrived at 11am to pick up three kids only to find that there was an eve of Children’s Day event going on and it took Suky almost an hour to locate the three kids we wanted amongst the one-thousand plus kids in the school play ground. Often we sat around at a school for forty-five minutes while the children were located despite the school having advance notice of a lunch or shopping trip for the kids.

We were able to update ourselves on the family situation of many of the children and also to make a few home visits to take a look at how we could help improve their living conditions. We completed twenty-six shopping and lunch trips on behalf of sponsors and of these only three trips did not involve a visit to KFC for lunch, during the last three lunch trips Suky, Boonying and I just sat and watched the kids enjoy their meal; there is only so much KFC one can eat.

The party at the Hauy Phong Home was a great success with almost three-hundred kids attending. We were also pleased that Ray Cornell of The Venue Jomtien who has raised a lot of money for PSK over the years was able to come along. Ray a singer and dancer by profession was impressed with the Home’s band and was first on the dance floor when the disco started. He proved a great hit with the kids many of who insisted on having their photo taken with him. All of the kids received gifts from lucky numbers pinned on a Christmas tree. We also purchased some sports equipment for the home and paid for the children to visit Suam Siam a Thai cultural heritage site. Just as I was leaving Pattaya Ray organised a show at The Venue starring Lady Diamond Sitges which was a sell out and through audience donations raised 27000Baht (£540) for PSK.

The party for the slum kids and kids from Baan Kong Por (formerly known as the MERCY Home) was also a success and we were pleased to welcome along Tom and Tim who sponsor a couple of kids at the home, it is always nice for the kids to meet their sponsors and the kids were really happy to see them. All of the kids received gifts and the kids from the slums also received a bag of rice and some extra food to take home with them.

I was invited to spend the afternoon and evening on Christmas Day at Baan Khong Por with the children. The children had school that day so the opening of presents was left until they returned home at 4pm. I can only say that twenty-eight children opening their gifts is an experience not to be missed. The kids firstly watch a ‘Ben Ten’ super hero DVD before opening their gifts and then as a special treat for dinner we included a couple of Ice-cream cakes from Svensons to help round off the day. It was early to bed for the kids as next day was a normal school day. All of the kids at Baan Khong Por who are of school age are sponsored through PSK so it gave me a good chance to catch up with how the kids are doing. The day was one of the highlights of the visit.

Staying with Baan Khong Por we were able to help by buying curtains and fittings for the kids dormitories, a new set of bunk beds as there were two girls having to share one bunk and another little girl was expected in a few days, a couple of tables for the Early Learning room and we have agreed to meet the food bill for the kids for three months. With twenty-eight growing kids clothes and shoes do not last very long so we bought 1000Baht (£20) of new clothes for each child at Christmas.

Sponsors of children or anyone wishing to visit Baan Khong Por to see the work that goes on are welcome to do so by appointment. Regrettably a very few people seem to think that they have a god given right to just turn up at the home unannounced completely disregarding the strict Child Protection Policy that the Thai government has and that Baan Khong Por must adhere to. Anyone wishing to visit can contact us and we will be happy to try to arrange a visit through the MERCY office where the visit will begin and transport made available to take visitors to the house. For obvious reasons the exact location of the house is not given out as the safety of the children is paramount if the refusal to give the address does annoy a few people who should better appreciate the need for child protection policies then so be it..

We were asked by Lhen Lhen who is the Leaders of the Chum Chom (slums) project if we could help with the cost of a special pushchair (stroller) for eighteen-month old baby ‘Vic’. ‘Vic’ was born with only a brain stem and is now too heavy to carry for the couple who the mother abandoned her to. Lhen Lhen was able to find a suitable pushchair that will give the baby’s large head substantial support and the cost of this was £100. A few days later speaking to Ian a   visiting UK sponsor and whilst talking about the baby he offered to meet the cost of the pushchair. ‘Vic’ has a life expectancy of up to ten years so we will be looking to see if we can assist with the cost of ongoing medication to make her comfortable.  

One child that we took shopping on behalf of a sponsor lives in a tiny dilapidated tin shack on a piece of wasteland next door to a chemical plant where a tank holding and acidic liquid recently exploded. A lot of the foliage on the piece of waste land was burned and the chemical sprayed over the house. We have offered to pay for the cost of the materials (appx £200) for the father of the child to rebuild or at least make the shack habitable, he is a general labourer and is willing to carry out the work himself.

On New Year’s Eve along with Lhen Lhen and her family I took three boys from Baan Khong Por to Pattaya beach to watch the fireworks and to see in the New Year. Along with a few thousand other people the kids enjoyed the night out as well as mingling with the crowds until early on New Year’s Day.

During the lunch / shopping trips for the students we were surprised how much the cost of clothes and food has increased since April when I last visited. Clothes that we were paying £3.50 for now cost £5 and school shoes which were £5 are now costing £7. Food has increased around 15% - 20% so it is little wonder that we have been asked for help by supplying monthly food parcels for more families this year.

On one slum two of the families who have over the past two year rebuilt their homes following flooding have been told to move off the land, the land owner has turned up and wants to clear the land for redevelopment. Both families each have two of our students in them so now these families must try to find another piece of wasteland to build somewhere to live. In one of the families the mother has recently received a twenty year prison sentence which leaves just the father to care for the two children aged a boy and a girl thirteen and eleven respectively.

Overall my visit was a success if at times a bit chaotic. My thanks to Liz and Suky in the MERCY office for acting as my social secretaries for five weeks and telling me (or in Suky’s case commanding me) where to be at certain times. My visit was particularly difficult for Liz who had eye surgery scheduled during my visit and who, against her eye surgeon’s advice, insisted on going to the office directly after being released from hospital to organise my day.

Also to Sharon, Khun Sudjai, Lhen Lhen and Francesca for facilitating my visits to Baan Khong Por, these frequent and informal visits gave me a good insight into the problems of bringing up twenty-eight kids and the associated costs of clothing and food. We have offered to consider helping with the costs of the kids’ welfare as and when we are able to do so. Also thanks to Liz’s driver Boonying for his ferrying me around Pattaya and all of his advice, the kids all love him and he is a valuable asset to the Scholarship project. He worked late into the evening on a number of occasions to ensure I got to where I was supposed to be. There are many other people in the MERCY organisation who helped make my visit run smoothly and I thank them all for their help. The MERCY office team is small but very effective.

If anyone wishes to find out more about the PSKSP charity or has any general questions our website is www.slumkids.org or we can be contacted at streetkids@ntlworld.com

We have published many of the photos of my visit and the links to these photos can be found at the bottom of this page,  

Don Ford.

Treasurer / Trustee

Web links: Hauy Phong Home 2013 New Year’s Party. http://tinyurl.com/b4kje7x

                    General photos Dec 2012 / Jan 2013.           http://smu.gs/14kkxkW

Hauy Phong 2013 New Year Party.

Photo gallery

http://tinyurl.com/b4kje7x

Hauy Phong Children's Home New Year Party December 2011

Clips from the December 20111 Hauy Phong Children's Home New Year / Pizza Party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2SKCJS_Nc&feature=youtu.be


If you wish to sponsor a child for this year's party please follow this link:
http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/Party_appeal_elec..pdf

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

Some of the kids we are working with in Pattaya

http://youtu.be/rd8ni_jM8AM

2013 New Year Parties Appeal

  

It's that time of the year again when we ask if you will think about helping the kids have a special day over the Christmas / New Year holidays.

Today we are launching our annual appeal to sponsor a child at one of the three parties we will be holding in Pattaya over the Christmas / New Year period and again this year we have kept the sponsorship at £2.50 a child.  We estimate that about 650 children will attend the three parties.

  

You can read the appeal  in your web browser  on our website:  http://www.slumkids.org/2013_parties_appeal.html

 

You can also view a YouTube Christmas / New Year greetings video greeting made by the kids of the Hauy Phong Children's Home here

We hope that you are able to see you way clear to sponsoring a child for a place at one of the parties and in doing so help these kids have a memorable day.

Registered Charity No. 1104335

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

Ray's visit to the Hauy Phong Children's home.

When Ray first visited the Hauy Phong Home in October 2009 to take part in a photo shoot for a fund-raising video he was making on behalf of PSK we doubt if he thought that three years later he would still be making visits there and this demonstrate how important it is to the kids to have a friend.

When Ray first visited the Home an eight year old boy named Duang grabbed Ray’s hand and stayed locked to him during the visit. We later learned that Duang and his two siblings had been removed from his family home because of serious abuse by a family member. When I visited the home a couple of months later Duang’s first words were ‘Khun Ray’ but at that time because of commitments at The Venue Ray was unable to visit.

However since then Ray has made regular visits to the home to visit Duang and the other kids from his dormitory and always takes small gifts and food for all of the kids, since Ray has been visiting him the Social Worker in charge of the Home has said that Duang is now much more self-confident and happy to have Ray as a friend and is now learning to play and Ang ka loong, a musical instrument played in the temples. Ray has also been involved in helping to raise funds to buy equipment for the kids at the home.

Following Ray’s birthday celebrations at The Venue last week today Ray emailed to say that he was planning to visit Duang at Hauy Phong today and had “bought shorts/tee shirt/shoes/toothpaste/brush/shampoo/soap/ for the lad......and coke/crisps/seaweed chews/plastic cups/for the kids...and that "Andi' the dog has been cut/shampoo...for Duang to hold...camera is on charge”

As the top photo shows when Ray visited Hauy Phong today Duang proudly showed off his musical skills on the Ang ka loong to Ray. We are hoping that Ray will be able to accompany us to the New Year Party for the kids at the Home in December where we understand Duang will be part of a musical performance by the kids.

Registered Charity No. 1104335

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

Pattaya Street Kids' Support Project. Registered UK Charity No. 1104335

 We are a secular charity and do not support  promote or endorse any religious organisation.

We are always prepared to consider working with any organisation in bringing help to children in need on the strict understanding that any such help is given unconditionally and does not involve the preaching, promoting or acceptance of any religion.

http://www.slumkids.org/

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

 

Evacuation at the Hauy Phong Children's Home

 

As we support the work of the Hauy Phong Children's Home where there are more than 300 children being cared for we keep in regular contact with the staff at the home.
Last week chemical explosions at an industrial plant a few miles from the home meant evacuating all of the children and staff some 40 miles away to Banglamung. This brief email from the head social worker at the home advises that they are all safe and well.

"How are You? I hope you are very well .last week had an accident at Chemical industrial mabtaput near our home. IT 's explosion. We immigrate to banglamung chonburi. but now everything is clear and return.
I am very glad too. Now everyone are safe. But those day some children/staff are fainted.
thank you very much from our heart
see you ka"

http://www.slumkids.org/

                                               100 Years From Today
It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.