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

Cecile donated monies collected from Burapha Group coffee and lunch ladies, and this time they have decided to donate towards this project.This project is situated in Soi Sunny Plaza, an area well known for its high concentration of bars, involving younger workers, and has one of the highest levels of prostitution, crime and drugs in the city. Many boys are exploited and under-age boys are especially sought. This center is for the boys and some girls to visit at their own discretion with their friends. Activities are provided, with English, Thai and math being taughtThe most popular activity is music, and the instruments that Pattaya Sports Club recently donated together with PILC are proving very popular!
The Welfare team, on behalf of PILC, would like to thank Cecile and the ladies of Burapha for their generosity and support for the projects we involve ourselves in. A new fridge was purchased with this donation, and a boxing bag and gloves, which I am sure will be utilised well by the lads! Thanks again and we look forward to your continued support.

Ingrid Cunliff

On Wednesday October 17, the Regent’s Primary school held a special fun day for the children as part of their book week celebrations.  Everyone was asked to wear their pyjamas and bring along a favourite soft toy.  (It’s not often you get to wear your pj’s to school!).  As you can imagine the focus was on books and it was a happy day of reading and being read to.  One of the activities was “The Mad Hatters Tea Party”.  The Mad Hatter is a character from the well known story “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.  A special area near the library was decorated with scenes and characters from the book.  The Rayong Bakery Project was asked along to sell cakes, biscuits and lots of other yummy goodies to the children when they came to the library for a storytelling session.  The Mad Hatter himself welcomed the children and entertained them with excerpts from the book.  Helping us with the bakery was “Alice in Wonderland” (we think she was really one of the teachers!) and Sohini and I wore our rabbits ears. (The rabbit was another character from the story). Over 400 children, teachers and parents visited the Tea Party and it was fun to see so many excited faces.  It was a very busy and tiring day but one we were happy to be a part of.  The Regent’s school is a great supporter of the Rayong Bakery Project and we thank them for asking us to be a part of their special day.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following ladies for donating to PILC Welfare projects:-

Stephanie Moorhouse who donated a truckload of furniture that will be gladly used at the Pattaya Nursery project.
Dot Knowles who donated a lovely sofa and a brand new fridge, also to be utilised by the nursery.
Nonie Malholtra and family also donated children’s toys and 2 fabulous water coolers, much appreciated.
Nok Shepherd a new member to PILC donated 10 bags of clothing and goods.  The clothes will be used for the monthly ‘food and goods drop’ in the Bang Chang slum areas by RLC.  The nursery will use the kitchen goods.
Burapha Ladies Group for the donation of 9000 baht to the Welfare of PILC that was used to fund a fridge and Muay Thai boxing bag.  Lynn from Fairtex provided 2 sets of gloves at no cost for the boys at the Big Jungle/Small House project in Sunae Plaza.  I know when this was presented to the boys they were very happy and it will get a lot of use!  Thanks to Burapha ladies and also a BIG thanks to Fairtex for your continued support for the Welfare projects - you are all STARS!

If you have any unwanted items please contact any of the Welfare Team and we will get them distributed to needy Places.

Thanks again for your generosity ladies.
Kind Regards Ingrid Cunliffe
BIG Jungle / Small House

It is great to see how well the houses have progressed since I left, they look really great.   Great credit is due to Marco and Khun Bic for all the work they have done in organising everything.

Many thanks also go to Rosanne, Ingrid and the PILC for your very generous donation, it really helped make this final phase possible.

I do not know my plans for returning to Thailand but I will let you know as soon as they are finalised so that we can arrange an official opening.  In the meantime I look forward to seeing the finished houses and hearing about the families who will live there.

Kind regards and best wishes to you all.

Dolores

The Mercy Center children and staff receiving from PILC Welfare team members the monies raised from the Opium Art Gallery night.

Wat Nongkeit Noi School is supported by PILC for scholorships and recently we funded the tiling of 4 class rooms.  This is the handing over of monies raised with the Opium Art Gallery night we hosted a few weeks back and the PILC book club bought 2500 baht worth of great books for the childrens library at the school, which is fantastic.

In the photo are Por Or and PILC members with children from the school enjoying the books already!!  Thanks to the PILC Book club members and PILC look forward to continued support for this school.

North Star Library: PILC Welfare team members and Khun Bic handed Marco from the Camillian Center 55,000baht to go towards the building of the Ban Eire 2 project.  This will be the second Irish Village built at Ban Chang.  Ban Eire 1, which was completed, last year, is going well with the 10 families loving the homes that they now have.  The building will commence shortly for the second project and the 10 homes that will be built will be filled with needy families that currently have no homes in the area.  PILC is proud to be a part of this worth-while project and I will keep you updated of the progress made with the homes.

Khun Tiew’s “Our Home” at Phuluang: PILC Welfare team members including Kathleen, Fiona and myself are handing over the monies raised from the Monster garage sale recently held there.  With these funds Khun Tiew has nearly reached her target of 450,000baht to extend the home so she can accommodate in more homeless girls and teach them the art of quilting and give them a warm and loving home environment.  PILC looks forward to continued support for K Tiew and “Our Home”.

Fountain of Life: Sr Joan and some of the older children receiving the monies raised from the Opium Art Gallery exhibition.  Many members were present as it was the Wednesday which is the card making afternoon at the center with the older children.  If any members would like to join the card making, please feel free to drop into the center, Wednesdays between 1pm and 2pm.

Fountain of Life Center: Dr Tassanee, the Head of the dental at Bkk Pattaya Hospital, and her team came again this year to check the children’s teeth at the Center.  The afternoon ran smoothly, with only a few tears!  Unfortunately, the diagnosis for most of the children was not so good with many having 10 to 20 cavities on their milk teeth already!  I can see we are going to have another busy time this year ferrying the kids to the dentist!

If you would like to help with this mammoth task, please either phone the center or Ingrid on 087-063-1807.

I am often teased about living in Ban Chang.  To many club members, the 40-minute drive “to the country” seems to take an eternity.  While it really isn’t that far in terms of mere kilometers, its rural expanse and small town feel is a far cry from the traffic-filled streets of Pattaya.  While making the trek into the city for groceries can sometimes be a chore, I have begun to appreciate shopping at the wet market, getting to know many of the vendors, and having traffic consist of the occasional elephant blocking a narrow lane.  But, within the agricultural boundaries of Ban Chang, comes a level of poverty experienced specifically by the agrarian farmer, evident in the corrugated tin shacks set up on the edges of pineapple fields and mango groves.  Many of you may not know that there is a group of expat women in this area that have also established a club, the Rayong Ladies Circle (RLC).  As with the PILC, this club consists of a wonderful group of women from all nationalities, sharing good company, conquering the challenges of living in a foreign country, and working together to better the place that they live.  One of the ways they are doing this is through the food delivery program they have established in Ban Chang.  Working with the social worker at the local hospital, Khun Math, the RLC provides 5,000 Baht per month to purchase food for needy families in the area.

As the new co-ordinator for the RLC Welfare Committee, I have become very involved in this program.  In doing the monthly deliveries, the need of many of the children of these families became painfully apparent.  Many children are living with aged grandparents because their parents have died of HIV or are off working on construction sites.  The grandparents make a meager living at best, being limited in the type and amount of work they can do.  Many live in houses with no running water or toilet.  With families barely being able to provide enough food to eat, there is little money left for other needs, one of which is uniforms for school.  On a whim, I decided to find a way to provide uniforms for these children.  I am always amazed how one good work begets another, and how generous and giving people are.  On hearing of my intentions, two amazing benefactors came out of the woodwork to join me.  Working with my fantastic, English-speaking housekeeper, Khun Porn, and Khun Math from the hospital, arrangements were made to pick up 21 children and take them to buy uniforms.  On the first day, Leisbeth Reichert and I collected 12 children in Khun Porn’s truck and drove to the bookstore in Ban Chang.  It was a daunting process fitting all those children for pants, shoes, shirts, gym outfits and/or belts.  Figuring out grade levels and items needed would have been impossible without the kind staff at the bookstore and Khun Porn overseeing.  All of the children were on their best behavior and it wasn’t long before anxious faces were transformed with smiles as their arms were filled with clothing and shoes. 

On the second day, Debbie Cavanaugh joined Khun Porn and I, as once again we traversed the back roads of Ban Chang, picking up 9 more children.  The bookstore staff welcomed us as we ravaged the isles for the second time.  It is difficult to describe the elation we felt as we watched these children’s faces.  One little boy had his arms packed with items, but refused to put them on the counter, worried that he would not get them back again if he did so.  And of course, no trip would be complete without the requisite stop for ice cream. 

While the children and their families benefited greatly from the purchase of the uniforms, Leisbeth, Debbie and I also came away changed.  The amount of baht required for each uniform seemed very cheap.   The feeling of joy and satisfaction the children gave each of us would have made any cost seem trivial.

Mari Parino

This is another Welfare Project, it is a school in Rayong called Noang Koboag.

They had a fire in their canteen resulting in this damage.

The man in the white shirt is David Cotteral from Shedden Uhde, whom donated 95,000 baht toward the new electric sysytem.

PILC toghether with the Jesters have also built this month 10 new toilets that were desperatly needed for this school of 300 students and had only 4 toilets!!!

We will posting pictures of the opening ceremony as soon as we they are available.

Here are some pictures from a project called I SEE YOU, where a member has donated funds to get the childrens eyes tested, as she herself went undiagnosed for years and had such a hard time and feels very passionate about this.So far we have tested Bang Jing Jai Orphanage, with 11 kids needing glasses, The Fountain Of Life Center, where 17 needed glasses , the Drop In center, where 6 needed and the last center we managed to secure a mobile team from Bkk to test the 180 kids, with 40 needing glassses.

All in all a very worthwhile project that will contiue with the fantastic donation from Ivy, Khun Birachai and his team from Pattaya Optical on Pattaya Klang and Khun Viroid from Cheoreon Optical in 2nd road are the local opticians that we use and many thanks to them and their staff.

These pictures are at the Fountain Of life Center, off third road. PILC purchased the play equipment, 30,000 baht worth in Febuary this year.

This center houses up to 130 chidren of a day time. They are taught by teachers while the staff and sisters try and find their original birth papers, if they have any and then they can attend Government schooling.

PILC volenteers also help on a Wednesday at this center with card making with the older kids.