A group of 26 ladies met up at Foodland to board the 3 vans organised for this welfare tour. We set off for the first visit along Sukhumvit Road and the vans pulled into what I can only describe as a tin shack town built to house hundreds of mainly immigrant, therefore not entitled to government health or education, construction worker families. This is a new project being developed by a British Lady who has lived in Pattaya for 10 years. Her idea is to provide care for the construction workers children (a total of around 60, including 14 babies and a few more due shortly) while their parents are at work on the construction sites. This lady arranges for some of the mothers to work in the care facility, for the 120 baht daily wage they would have earned at the site, and discourage the children from accompanying their parents onto the construction sites or being left unsupervised in ‘tin shack town’. This lady has persuaded the construction company to provide the building for this with facilities including bathrooms, kitchen, nursery, office, clinic room and a large play area which will also be used for teaching purposes. Some equipment for this project has already been donated but many more items such as children’s and baby clothes, nappies, infant formula, books, toys and games (good chance to de-clutter the kids toy boxes before Christmas) and volunteering time to assist this very worthwhile scheme are needed.
The next visit was to the World Vision ‘small house big jungle’ project which was featured in the November issue of the Tropic Topics newsletter. We were entertained by a couple of songs from the band some of the boys have formed, they were very good, although their style of music is definitely aimed at the younger generation! Lynn from Fairtex arrived with a presentation of a punch bag and boxing gloves, one of the suggested items they would like PILC to provide. Other items required are bookshelves, a television and volunteers to assist with English and music lessons.
The final visit of the day was to Ban Jing Jai, which is home to 50 children whose parents are either deceased or unable to care for them, and it was nice to meet a lot of the children as it is the school holidays. Ban Jing Jai consists of two houses, one each for the boys and girls, and a large playground area. The children attend local government schools and are encouraged to further develop and expand their knowledge and abilities through activities such as crafts, music, cooking, household duties and swimming. To generate extra income and pocket money the children make lovely jewellery and candles, and they also collect items for recycling. They also have a very good music group, which has twice won first prize awards in a couple of music competitions, and we can all look forward to them entertaining us with festive music at the Christmas lunch. After refreshments and purchases we set off to leave and were all presented with lovely, traditional Thai flower garlands from the children.
All in all it was a very good tour with plenty of opportunity to donate your time or goods required for any of these, and other welfare projects, just see any of the welfare team for information.
Dot Knowles