Under Construction
I just got back from 3 weeks in Thailand. I thought you might be interested in my travels so I’m sending you this update about my activities.
My deepest thanks to the people who donated computers, eyeglasses, money, their time and recommendations to help me with this mission. Everything counts.
Thanks in large part to your support; we were able to complete the following projects:
1. Computer Lab
at an orphanage with 43 children in Mae Hong Son. The computers were donated by
some wonderful friends. Some had to be shipped to Rochester, we added a mouse
to those that didn’t have one, added a power source to one, converted the
keyboard to Thai/English, added Thai software for MS Office and a ‘Learn to
Type’ program. Had to reload XP Operating System for one of the computers.
The Orphanage Director was just thrilled with this project and the opportunities
that it opened up for learning for ‘his’ children. More laptops are needed
for other orphanage programs and if you have replaced your computer recently,
please consider donating your old laptop to one of these orphanages. I can
assure you that it will be put to good use.
2. We supplied 200 lbs of rice and another $50 to provide fuel for their one truck (which is used to transport the children to and from school) at Safe Haven Orphanage. I will detail other needs as I am featuring this orphanage in this newsletter. Unfortunately 200 lbs. of rice doesn’t last very long when you have 50 children and they eat rice for every meal. The children wanting to eat 3 meals a day does not exactly help either, though it does seem quite normal.
3. Provided donated eyeglasses to the Baan Dada Orphanage where they run this program for ‘Unite for Sight’. This is a community based program. The wonderful Orphanage Director, Richard, was most appreciative and assured me that this donation would benefit many people in the area who can not afford glasses. There are many more people that need glasses then there are glasses for people that need them. If you have eyeglasses that you no longer use, please consider donating them for this great program.
4. At one of the orphanages, one young man (15 years old) was badly in need of eyeglasses. He doesn’t live anywhere near the above program and has ‘special needs’ glasses which would be most unusual to find from donations. As a result of this critical need, we purchased his glasses and they are being made as you are reading this. The cost of these glasses was 1900 baht (approx. $60). Many orphan children have never had their eyesight checked. Astigmatism is very prevalent in Asian children. It would be no surprise to me that 15-20% of these children need some type of vision correction.
5. Water project for Safe Haven Orphanage. This is the first of three phases for this project whose long term goal is to get an abundant supply of potable water for cooking and drinking (they must buy their cooking and drinking water), showers and clothes washing for the children who now use the river to bathe and wash their clothes and water for toilets including the addition of one more set of toilets for the orphanage. After my visit, I discussed phase 1 of this project with a wonderful man and good friend, Nat Yogachandra, from the Hope is Life Foundation. http://www.hopeislife.org/ I wrote up the project proposal and he is now raising the approx. $1100 to complete the portion of the project that will get this orphanage abundant water even during the dry season (Phase 1). A huge THANK YOU to Nat and the Hope is Life Foundation. I am very grateful.
All of the progress so far is beyond my expectations as I hadn’t ever really expected to begin the website and programs until I was retired in Thailand. When I began visiting the orphanages and saw some of the conditions that exist there, I knew I couldn’t just sit back and wait. Without your assistance, much of this progress would not be possible. I am very very grateful for all of your help.
On this trip I visited 7 orphanages, mostly along the Thai/Burma border. All of these orphanages are north of Kanchanaburi and once you leave Kanchanaburi, believe me, it is Welcome to the Jungle. It is the end of the rainy season, which means it rains everyday, but not all day. For sure though, it will begin to rain within 5 minutes of getting on a motorbike. The orphanages are very rural and often require traveling by motorbike to get to. The rain feels like sleet on your face and the roads can be treacherous. Mosquitoes, Dengue Fever and Malaria are also quite prevalent in this area, and children do die from these diseases. Some of these orphanages are so close to the border that each night your can hear the gunfire from the Myanmar army and the Karen Hill tribe fighting in Karen State from the 50 year war. On the rainy night that I spent at the Safe Haven Orphanage in Tha Song Yang, I could hear the gunfire as the orphanage is only ½ mile from the border, and the fighting wasn’t much further away. Sometime I’ll do an article about this horrible war. If you would like to find out more now, please go to http://www.freeburmarangers.org
One thing stands out more then anything from the orphanages that I visited: These Orphanage Directors are real heroes. The orphanages that I visited were Bamboo School, Baan Dada, Baan Unrak, Safe Haven Orphanage, Opportunities for Poor Children, Child Life, Baan Kru Mookda. Links to all of these orphanages can be found on the ‘links’ page of my website. I came away from this trip with many projects that I would like to complete at each of these orphanages. All of them need support for special projects all of them deserve to be ‘featured’. I will put in special pages on my website for each of them ASAP. For now I’ll highlight the needs of just one.
Feature Orphanage: Safe Have Orphanage
Safe Haven Orphanage is run by a wonderful Karen woman, Tasanee Keereepraneed. She started this orphanage after her husband was killed in the Karen State 50 year war. The original orphanage location was her own home in Tha Song Yang. Through the years, the orphanage outgrew her home and she has just moved to the new orphanage location, just down the road from her original home. She now supports almost 50 children and does this on less than 40,000 baht (less then $1200) per month. She has literally built this new site with her bare hands, her willpower and a very strong group of children focused on building a better life for themselves. The buildings are all made of bamboo (collected from the jungle) except for the concrete kitchen. She runs (still part of the $1200) a second location in Mae Sot, where the ‘older’ children need to go to have access to schools past (what we would call) grade 9. She needs some help with many different projects to improve the health, nutrition and education of these children. I’ll list some of the projects from this one orphanage, that we discussed and some costs where I know approx. what they would be.
Safe Haven Projects: 
Water Project. Phase 1 is being funded through Hope is Life as above. Phase 2 and 3 are approx. $500-$700 for the toilets, showers and clothes washing area. This price includes a new septic system for the additional toilets. Reverse osmosis (?) water purifier not yet priced.
Fish Farming Project Tasanee has started digging a shallow fish pond for the purpose of raising fish to improve the protein intake for the children. I have begun to investigate and find an expat resource who could consult through this process. This is critical so that resources are not lost in this project. If concrete cells are used instead of the ‘dug pond’, costs would run from $500-$700 depending on the size of the ponds. Bird netting and the possibility of attracting mosquitoes also has to be a consideration in this project. Current response to an advisor has gotten unsatisfactory results although alternative solutions have come to light. More investigation is needed. Protein consumption is a very big concern of mine at this orphanage in view of the inadequate monthly budget that they live with.
Volunteers Increased volunteers are very much needed by this orphanage. Two important reasons. 1. Volunteers can help to supplement the children’s education for learning English. 2. Volunteers pay room and board and can offer valuable assistance in the closing the monthly budget gap. Solutions to getting more volunteers: 1 Changing the website to include volunteer information and the important contribution that their room and board plays in contributing to the orphanage. And the desire to have volunteers 2. Improving volunteer housing to create a revenue stream for the orphanage. Most importantly, improved toilet and shower facilities. Approx. cost $400.
Vision Care Almost none of these children have ever had their vision tested. Testing needs to be done and glasses provided for those with the most severe impairment. Cost is approx. $60 per child.
Severe eye care issue One lady at the orphanage has a very severe ‘cross-eye’ issue. The operation to fix this condition is available in Mae Sot is only 2 hours south of Tha Song Yang. The ‘surgery’ is performed as ‘outpatient’ surgery and she can be home the same day. The cost of this is 8000baht (approx $250). Her initial response is that she is a little fearful, which I can understand. If she changes her mind or she will consult a doctor about the operation, I am making this surgery available to her. Why, simply it would wrong not to.
Computers At the Mae Sot location, they have two very old (pre-Pentium) computers. They do not work at all. I couldn’t even turn them on to boot them up. I would like to replace them with 2 Pentium laptops. I would then update them to Thai/English, convert the keyboard, add software and make these valuable learning tools for the students.
If you would like to help with any of these specific projects, please let me know.
Phase 1 of my website is just about complete. Updates to the website from this September trip will begin very soon. Check back at www.GaryinThaialand.com
If you are this mailing list and do not wish to be, please email me and I’ll quickly remove your name from the list.
I am more convinced than ever that these projects can make huge strides to help these rural children with health, nutrition and education. With a small amount of your help, I can get much more done and done faster. I’ll be back in Thailand for 3 more weeks in December. The holidays are coming. I hope yours are just as rewarding as I know mine are going to be. A small donation goes a long way to help these children. 100% of your donation goes directly to the projects. There are no administrative costs, no fund raising costs, and no transfer costs. Paying through PayPal is fast and easy. Help if you can. Everything counts.
http://www.garyinthailand.com/Donate.htm
Warmest Regards,
Gary
