Take Care Kids

Today, I am going to start where I left off last time: we will talk about our Shelter. It is so nice for me to get to the office and hear the kids playing.....the kids staying at the shelter are Kluay, Sa, L and M (I know it sounds weird, but those letters are their names),Ann and Two. To tell you the truth, when I get to the office, they are generally at school.

To us our kids' education is a major issue, taking second place only to their health. We send them to a special school in order to get to their peer's level, and once they reach it, they can attend the public schools. Lets not forget that the majority of these kids come from slums around Pattaya, so their cultural level is not too high. So this year, the candidates for public school are our little "princess" Ann, and L and M will be joining her along with Two....Kluay and her little brother sadly cannot attend school until next year (if they stay with us that long). This happens because their mother is Cambodian and their father is Thai...they live on the edges of society...the mother tries to get jobs in the construction sites because she is an illegal immigrant (therefore can be arrested) and the father needs to hide along with her (he apparently has pending charges for homicide), in order to flee from the police. Since these two parents never registered the birth of their two children, according to Thai law, they do not exist, therefore have no rights whatsoever. We are now trying to "bring them back to life" but it's a very long and costly process. That won't stop us, but it is slowing us down, these kids have a right to existence. In the meantime, we also celebrated L's birthday. She's a really pretty girl of nine now. She's always smiling even though she has already been through all kinds of abuse, and we are now working with the institutions in order to give some justice to all these people who have never had justice in their life. In the middle of all these things we have Maria, our volunteer who is basically all the kids' mom. She wakes up with them and goes to sleep when they go, always taking care of each one, just like a real mother would do, and the step-mom's role is covered by out other volunteer Noo t. Another pillar volunteer is Piero, the handyman. He fixes all sorts of things and also plays around with the kids a lot and........don't tell him...... he doesn't know, but the kids call him "the Coach". Another great volunteer is Danilo who always takes time after his work to spend a few hours with the kids in the shelter. I want to thank also those volunteers like Cristian, Claudio and Roberto who donated powdered milk and diapers for all the kids in the slums, and Serena and Giacomo, who spent their Honeymoon with us and brought tons of crayons for the kids to draw. So as you see, it's a constant and direct connection, a flowing river that never stops....and we need to make sure it never stops to guarantee that all the other kids living in the slums can start living a different life without abuse and violence and solitude. As long as you keep on supporting us....even you my friend, the one reading this for the first time... our hope will become a reality, so thanks to all, and do't forget to follow our developments and keep on supporting us as always......

TCK