The dangers of mosquitoes

Suky went out to visit these children's mother  yesterday.  It seems that her husband has begun drinking, 'playing the field' and meeting with 'old pals', so they have separated.

Unable to earn enough at her day job to take care of her children and her brother, she has begun working in a Karaoke bar in the evenings/nights.

It seems that Saharat was not at school when she called, because he has some very worrying skin problems, probably the result of being bitten by mosquitoes and then scratching...and the baby has some similar, but less angry looking patches, too. (We may have to look at how we can try to prevent this, also.)

The children need to go to the hospital, and Suky is free to take them tomorrow morning.  We're trying to firm up details with Mum.  We have no idea how much it will cost, but we'll give you the report as soon as they've seen the doctor, O.K?

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

UK based sponsor's visit to meet his students in Pattaya.

Never let it be said that we do not immerse visiting sponsors in the madness that is Pattaya:

It was all very hectic yesterday - and in the middle of it was the question of how to get my dog back from the vet's, can you believe?   It was one of those days when "You don't have to be mad to work here, but it does help", comes to mind.

Having said that, Thomas (always such a pleasant and amenable chap) arrived at the office promptly at 10:30am, so I had the chance to catch up on his life and new job (and the weather, of course, being a Brit.), while Suky dashed around in the background trying to find out where the van was. It transpired that the van at the Home was in the garage, so Sharon was using the Toyota van to take two of the kids to hospital, and the pick-ups were being used by others - so we reckoned that since the two boys were only slim, everyone would just manage to fit in my car. 

Thomas, Suky and Boonying, having collected the boys from their school, ate at Maes Y Ruen - chicken, prawns & rice and satay with bread (I've never found out why they serve bread with the satay - maybe to mop up any remaining peanut sauce?) before going into Tesco Lotus to choose a gift for each of them (remote controlled cars) and groceries for the family.  Thomas was happy to help them carry their goodies home before going back to school, and being the sweet natured fellow he is, sent me a non spicy take away lunch to the office. He could see I might fade away from lack of nourishment, obviously!

I'd checked previously that he wasn't afraid of dogs, so on the way back, after taking the boys back to school, they collected my dog from the vet's, and took her home.

I was very sorry I couldn't arrange to get Thomas to the Home though - we hadn't the transport available at the time the children would be there.  However, Thomas said (although I know he was disappointed) he would do it next time.  Bless his heart, it would be wonderful if everyone was so understanding, wouldn't it?

Anyway, Suky said the boys were still enjoying school and hadn't encountered any problems (yet), and they were delighted to see Thomas again.  They're not in the least shy these days, which always makes it easier for a sponsor, of course.

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

Jeans for the kids

 
With winter just around the corner it was time to kit out the kids at BKP with new jeans so we donated 11,900 baht (£238) for a new pair of jeans and a belt for each of the 30 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.

www.slum-kids.org

Birthday shopping trip for two students

  

We were asked to organise a birthday shopping trip by these two students American sponsor.

As you can see from the photographs, Perepat and Patchara were obviously as big a hit with Johnny Depp and the cartoon samurai warrior as they were with Suky!

However, they weren't so much interested in Calvin Klein Jeans as with choosing a very nice watch for each of them - their choice of birthday gift. It's interesting to see the difference in their tastes, isn't it?

Lunch was at Sizzler, where they ate chicken steaks and fries for their main course, and since they also had their choice of soups, pasta, salad and dessert - no complaints at all. Just the thing for growing boys, although they did take some dunkin' doughnuts home for later - to combat the gnawing in the stomach before suppertime, I guess.

They didn't use up all their money, so there is some left in case anything unexpected comes up.

They said they're both enjoying school, and Perepat also enjoys singing - in his own inimitable style.  
 

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

Hong Kong based sponsors visit their students

On Saturday we picked up Tom  and his partner at their hotel at 9.30am and took them over to BKP to meet our kids - and in particular, Art and Ploy.

Ubie had brought some art supplies from Hong Kong with her, to give her an opportunity to do what she obviously loves - be with children.  She is a natural, and there was lots of opportunity for interaction with them, although I think she and Tom were quite surprised to find how much less time they took to complete their given tasks (Omsin and Garfield excepted) than they had thought - giving us plenty of time for lunch.

They had originally thought to eat with the children, but when we checked the food for the day there was some kind of unappetizing (to us) looking brown vegetable (perhaps because of the vegetarian festival) in the pan, which we couldn't eat - so we decided to go out to Kiss restaurant on Siam Country Club Road, giving them the opportunity to see something of the countryside as we drove. 

Young or old, the children enjoyed fitting their individual packet projects together, although some were a little difficult to finish, as they appeared to have bits missing (or maybe, since they were peeled off a paper back, some of the tiny bits had been overlooked and thrown away).  Never-the-less, we usually were able to sort something out. The glasses, which needed the arms attaching, I sewed on.

The older projects were, obviously, rather more complicated - and clearly basket weaving isn't Lek's strong point, as he eventually gave up, and one of the girls finished it.  They seemed to be bags and baskets and containers of various kinds - lovely bright colours, and practical, as could be seen as they wandered around, very proud of their bags, baskets, visors (Wear was very quick making his) etc.

Of course children always find a way to do something other than use the materials as they were originally intended and all the superfluous sticky bits ended over eyes, mouths and faces, producing very colourful masks. What is it they say about children preferring the wrapping to the present???

After the younger children had woken from their nap, and before they had their afternoon snack, Tom and Ubie gave them their pens (which had a calendar that could be pulled out) and a marshmallow treat, and each child waied and said "Thank You".  It was so sweet.

We finished around 3.00pm and dropped them at their hotel, where they could enjoy a well earned bit of R. & R.

Sunday Tom and Ubie were introduced to Suky, and we walked them over to Royal Garden Plaza for KFC whilst they decided what they wanted to do with the children.  Since we couldn't all get in one vehicle, and as Suky certainly didn't need me around, I opted out,

Suky,Tom and Ubie, after 'suffering' KFC on Sunday (none for Boonying, as he's into vegetarian until the end of the festival), took Art & Ploy to Dairy Queen for a soft, swirly ice cream, which they had dipped in chocolate and sprinkles.

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

Feeding the kids

Every month Pattaya Street Kids’ Support Project (PSK) pay for a monthly delivery of food to some of our poorest scholarship students and other kids living in the slum of Pattaya to help ease the burden on their families.

The food is delivered for us by Suky and Boonying of MERCY Pattaya and in doing these deliveries it often alerts us to other problems that the families may be facing. If it is a  problem with a child then PSK can often help with the money needed to resolve the difficulty and if it is with adult family members the Suky and Boonying can often offer help through MERCY Pattaya.

In the last six months our food bill for kids we are helping has reached £7000 (350,000Baht) and we expect this to at least double at the end of twelve months. For many of the families we are helping the monthly food delivery is an essential lifeline to help enable them to feed their kids and as in some cases we also pay for snacks at school the food we supply may be the only food that a child eats in a day.

A few months ago a case was reported to us of two sisters who were surviving on scraps of food left over from school meals, fortunately we were able to help out with a monthly food drop but there are probably many other children who are in the same situation but whose families are either to proud or feel ashamed to ask for help.

If you would like to make a donation to help us feed these kids you can do so by using the PayPal donate button on our website or by using any of the other methods shown on this page: http://www.slum-kids.org/sponsorship/how-to-sponsor/

To make sure that you donation is used to buy food simply put the word “Food” as the reference with your donation, your donation can make a difference as to whether a child receives a meal or relies on scraps of food for their daily sustenance

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

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