Take Care Kids

Dear friends I'm in a real hurry this time, because I have lots to tell.....the first story is an act of love and a demonstration of the fact that charity and solidarity work when all the people involved come together and coordinate perfectly. On Nov. 10th, I received a call from a friend in another foundation in order to help 145 children. These people live in Pai in the Province of Mae Hong Son and they are all ethnic minorities like Karen and Mhong.....

They needed heavy clothes for the upcoming winter. It might seem strange to talk about winter in Thailand, but the northern areas can go all the way to 5 degrees Celsius (a few years ago, a cold wave killed more than 5000 people), and on the Burmese border the temperatures can drop very low. After I talked to Giorgia Zanoncello, Take Care Kids' Secretary, all clothes were collected by our volunteers and taken to Milano Malpensa. Mrs. Anna Prevè from Thai Airways made sure the clothes were sent to Thailand, where Khun Oy (our lawyer and trusted friend) received them and on the 2nd of December Khun Am and Khun An (two local supporters who had called us for help) loaded all the clothes on their truck and drove 1200km to reach their destination. The whole mission took 22 days, and now all the kids are grateful to Take Care Kids and their volunteers and friends for having guaranteed a warmer and more comfortable winter. In the meantime Fabio Pigmei (one of our oldest supporters), Constanze Poch (a German friend of TCK's for years) and I  went on another "tour" to Koh Chang to visit our Cambodian children. It was a wonderful adventure!

We gave them some new clothes and took them to a local fast food (chicken and fries). And even though I have been doing these things for years, the emotion is still the same as the first time!. The smiles from these children are so warming and Constanze's and Fabio's help was fundamental. I think they'll remember this experience for a long time. Bin, one of the Cambodian children who received a jacket from one of your donations, wore it immediately and didn't take it off for the whole day. Even though the temperature during the afternoon was close to 35 degrees, he still wore his jacket (with fur!).......when you can make a child that happy, it is priceless.

On our way back to Pattaya my head was already humming with other thoughts. One was about a girl named An, 7 years old with two brothers and her Mom (no Dad around) who tries to give her all she needs (with a paycheck of 140 euro). The mother came to me for help because they have no money to go to the dentist, so I went to see the situation, and the girl's teeth were in bad shape, so I took them to the dentist immediately. Her baby teeth are rotten and the two permanent teeth are already presenting cavities. One needs to be extracted, the other has to be treated. So An, with the courage of a lion, lets the dentist work and fix one of her teeth and give us a new appointment for the extraction of the second one.

Meanwhile, Piero calls me (he's one of our volunteers here in Thailand) to go to the slums. He has two little bikes he fixed to give to the children living there. So thanks to an early Christmas and Piero's handy work the two kids who received the bikes can now run around in the dirt with their new toys.....and hopefully they will not hurt themselves......so as you see, we have many things cooking.....it's impossible to tell them all.....but my satisfaction in seeing all these people cooperating to reach a common goal....well that was really something....it really gave me an emotional boost and has strengthen my belief that by working together we can really solve many problems.......this is the international cooperation I have dreamed all along.....so see you next time....wonderful people!

TCK