Saturday: Ban Tharn Namchai

It has become a tradition that each time we visit Ban Tharn Namchai we bring joy to the local ice-cream man by buying ice cream for all the children.  Since I expect that lots of other people do precisely the same thing, no doubt the ice-cream man is heading swiftly for a well-endowed and early retirement.  Most important, though, the children seem never to lose their enthusiasm for ice-cream, so we bring joy to them, too, which makes us happy so it is that rarest of all outcomes, a win-win-win!

Ban Tharn Namchai is such a happy place that it is a jolt to be reminded of its dark origins in the aftermath of the Tsunami.  I have to ask Khun Rotjana some questions for a forthcoming film about the Orphanage, available soon.  A large group of teenage girls is seen praying with a monk. The questions to be answered are why they are praying and how long it lasts.  The answer, gently given, brings me up with a jolt.  Buddhists believe, says Khun Rotjana, that when a person dies, their spirit continues.  By praying regularly with a monk, the living can bring comfort to the spirits of the dead.  Most of the children in Ban Tharn Namchai lost one or both parents, or another close relative, in the Tsunami or later, as a result of it.  For ten days each year the children pray regularly with the monk for the spirits of their departed relatives.  It is part of coming to terms with the tragedy that engulfed this beautiful place just six years ago. This process is still ongoing, especially in the hearts of these bereaved children.

Later this year packs of six Christmas Cards handmade by the children of Ban Tharn Namchai will be available on the Thai Children's Trust web shop.  Work has already started as you can see above.  This is really popular with the children, because every card earns 5 baht for the child who makes it, so plan your order now!

Travels with a Wheelchair

As some of you will know, my wife Sally, who almost always accompanies me on these visits to Thailand, is a wheelchair user. I thought, since we have been here with the wheelchair a few times now, that a few comments on travelling with a wheelchair might help other users to decide that yes, they can come to Thailand and enjoy a visit.

Thai law makes provision for accessibility, and over the past ten years huge strides forward have been taken in providing adaptations for particularly wheelchair users.  But given that the country was starting from a very low level of provision, the job is not yet complete.

Taking things in order.  Airlines.  We have always flown EVA from UK for the very good reason that they offer TCT supporters special terms.  Their provision for wheelchair users has been first-class throughout.  They will provide a pusher at Heathrow and at Suvarnabhumi, allowing us to take our own wheelchair right to the door of the aircraft and then presenting it at the door on arrival.  At the door, the stewardesses descend on Sally in numbers, helping to support her to her seat, making her comfortable and rendering me cheerfully redundant.  EVA score top marks on the international leg, as do Thai Airways on domestic flights.  Thai make full use of airbridges to and from the aircraft, and on the one occasion when an airbridge was not available a special vehicle with a lifting body and a tail lift - the sort of thing normally used for loading the food trolleys - was provided so that exiting the plane was easy.  Nok Air are slightly less distinguished: leaving Bangkok for Nong Khai was fine since they used the airbridge at Don Muang.  But on arrival at Udon Thani for some reason they disdained the airbridge and made us disembark by steps.  Not Sally's favourite, although we made it without mishap.  If you really can't do steps, either warn Nok first - or travel Thai!

Getting around inside Thailand involves getting in and out of a lot of minbuses.  There is really no way of avoiding this, since the train service is sketchy.  Sally has developed her own unique way of climbing into a minibus, which involves putting her wheelchair cushion on the top step, kneeling onto it, shuffling on her knees between the front seat and the bulkhead, then twisting upward onto the seat.  It sounds awkward, but it works.  But if you can't get into a minibus you may have some travel restrictions, unless you can use rental cars or taxis.  Bangkok Taxis are OK, and the drivers (so far) very helpful, but they have one restriction, which is that many are powered by LPG and therefore have limited luggage space.  We have an aluminium Wheeltech chair (ebay, £50) which dismantles very readily.  The handles fold down, the footboards and supports come off and the wheels pop off in an instant.  If you take the brake off first.  Dismantled it will fit in the boot of a Bangkok taxi, although the drivers are often bemused.  It is also very light so that even when fully assembled it is easy to lift in and out of vans, taxis etc..  There is one snageroo, which is that the retaining nuts on the folding handles are prone to shake out, and did so last year on the flight from Udon Thani to Bangkok.  A wheelchair with one handle severely affected by droop is a useless wheelchair, so tighten all the nuts before consigning to the hold! Outside Bangkok, service areas and airports increasingly provide properly adapted disabled loos with handrails and emergency buzzers.  Doorlocks can be unreliable, so post a minder outside to avoid unwelcome interruptions.

Away from the cities and the motorways, Thailand has a great many 'Turkish' loos, the squatting kind.  These are not easy for people with balance problems, or, as someone pointed out at Mae Tao Clinic, for people with replacement hip joints.  All hotels have a common affection for modern 'low-rise' loos.  These are almost as impossible as 'Turkish' loos for people with weak legs.  For someone travelling alone a device which sits onto the loo seat and adds four inches or so might take up some luggage space, but would be worth the trouble.  Some might even find it worth brining a folding commode to place over the loo on the grounds that it would provide both a raised seat and handrails in one easy package.  We make do with a sort of rolling lift from me that rocks Sally up to her feet, a technique honed to perfection by years of practise.  I like to think.

Hotels.  Every hotel we have stayed in has gone out of its way to be helpful and welcoming.  The Redemptorist Centre in Pattaya - where all the rooms in the new block are disabled friendly - is the only one to offer grab rails everywhere in the bathroom, and especially beside the loo.  There is a lift to all floors.  This is not always the case in small hotels, so it is worth making sure before you arrive that the hotel know that you have special needs and that a ground floor room is available if there is no lift.  A ground floor room is, of itself, no guarantee of accessibility: we have had to avoid staying at one well-known guest house in Mae Sot because the ground floor doors are protected by two foot high concrete barriers: I assume that this is flood protection, but it also deters the disabled.  Instead we stay at Phannu House, where there are wheelchair ramps and ground floor rooms.  Because Phannu has no eating facilities (Casa Mia is but a few minutes walk) we have thought of getting reflectors or lights for the chair for nighttime returns from supper, but we haven't done anything about it.  Cyclists and motorcyclists seem to go freely without lights, so why not a wheelchair?

In Bangkok we stay at the President Park.  It has lifts to all floors, but no specially adapted rooms.  The ramps into the hotel are very steep and quite slippery, I have to use shoes not sandles when pushing the chair.  The staff, however, are brilliant and will cheerfully help push up or brake on the downward leg.  A caution - here and all around Soi 26 there are steep ramps: so steep that a footboard set too low will catch and can catapult the wheelchair user out of the chair and onto the pavement.  Consider raising the footboards, or make sure your 'pusher' has a quick right foot to raise the front of the wheelchair as you attack the ramp.

A prize must go to the hotel we are in today, the Andamania in Khao Lak.  They had built a ramp  specially so that we can push easily into our bedroom, which is ground floor.  The Manager came to ask whether there was anything they could do to make us more comfortable, and we pointed out that the sunken bathroom was a bit of a problem.  Within 4 hours a second ramp had been installed, all handmade by the hotel handyman.

And that is the nub of the tale.  Thailand is not perfect in its provision for disabled access, but there is a huge willingness - eagerness - to help, which simply overcomes any obstacles.  Thailand is not called 'the land of smiles' for nothing.  So if you are a wheelchair user, and you are considering a holiday here - go for it.  You'll have fun.

Friday 11-Monday 14 - Sarnelli.

How to describe Sarnelli?  We have been coming here now for maybe six years, and it is just like coming home. There is a warmth here that is special.  This is partly Fr Mike Shea, who is nothing if not an excellent host and raconteur; partly it is his wonderful team of people who are happy and confident.  Partly it is the magic of the children who are boisterous, noisy and fun. They have the security of knowing that each one is loved and valued.  There is a sense in which Sarnelli is a series of homes for children who share one common factor - each one has been affected by the HIV virus in one way or another.  In another way it is just one huge happy family.

One of the remarkable things about Sarnelli is that Fr Mike, who was brought up in  a farming family, is still a son of the soil.  He and his team are farming more than 25 acres of land, which yields in  good year about 160 sacks of rice.  In a poor year like 2010, when planting was delayed two months by the non-arrival of the rains, they still won 120 bags,.  This represents a saving of more than 100,000 baht on the food bill, besides helping teach the children to plant, weed and harvest.  A German Lutheran church had given Fr Mike a brand new tractor, which was sitting outside St Patrick's house all shiny and new, as yet unused.  Anywhere else it would be an indulgence, but here with Fr Mike it will earn its keep.

Exciting plans to increase the scale of the farming here will be announced later in the year.  It is possible that eventually this project will be self-sufficient in rice, and that producing it will provide jobs for one or two of the children who have been too badly affected by the HIV virus ever to go out into full-time employment.

When we were here three years ago we met 'Boy'.  He had just arrived, he had AIDS, he was stick thin and very poorly with a disconcerting habit of throwing up without notice, something which has to be treated with considerable respect when the thrower-up is HIV+  He was not a happy little boy, and I think there were a few doubts as to his ability to get well again.  Well, here he is today (Boy is the one on the left, on the right is TCT Chair Crispian Collins, less hat and sunglasses) bursting with health, naughty, cheeky full of fun.  Boy, that is, not Crispian!  Boy will never be free of the HIV virus, but he is a shining example of how children with HIV can thrive and life completely normal lives when properly cared for by skilful people like the Sarnelli team.

It being Thailand, there was a party, on 13th February, for Valentine's Day.  Of course the children would be at school on 14th.  There was dancing and a special lunch.  The home made ice cream was nectar.  Sorry you missed it!  But later there will be film of the dancing on YouTube when we have had time to clean up the video.

Wednesday: Hsa Thoo Lei

Wednesday morning was a treat.  We spent with our good friends at Hsa Thoo Lei, who put on a wonderful display of dancing, and especially of the Karen dancing which is so elegant, so vigorous and so vital a part of the Karen  national identity.  Steve Gomersall's 'Brighter Futures' students made a fluent presentation in English of their work and the work of Brighter Futures.  Steve stood by, quietly glowing with pride at their success, as well he might because they were terrific.  It is young people like the amazing Karen dancers and the accomplished 'Brighter Futures' graduates who make the case for everything Thai Children's Trust is trying to do on the Thai Burma border.  These are hard-working, high-achieving young people who deserve their education and try to make the best possible use of it.

The border is a place for campaigns.  The theme of the Ts and jackets at Hsa Thoo Lei was child trafficking, something which these kids know more about than they ever should.

After this, a meeting with BMWEC.  Normally I report visits not meetings, but I want to make an exception in this case.  BMWEC is the Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee.  It is a federal organisation of migrant schools with, at present, 39 members plus seven boarding houses.  The managing committee is elected by the member schools.  As organisations go it may not be perfect, but it is nonetheless broadly functional and democratic.  BMWEC is striving with the support of some donors to find a way to enable funds to be more evenly and fairly distributed among the migrant schools.  This is not an easy task.  There are different ways of achieving the goal.  Some of these are more attractive to the schools, others are more attractive to donors.  There is a long way to go before the BMWEC members, who are facing the daily realities of inadequate income, truly understand the position of the donors and (very importantly) vice-versa.  But when you have seen, as I have, schools attempting to operate on 15% of their required budget, and met teachers who have not been paid for four months or more, you cannot dispute the urgent need for progress.

A functioning BMWEC could help signpost donors to schools where the need is greatest.  A functioning BMWEC could provide reliable facts and figures to give authoritative support to applications for extra funding.  A functioning BMWEC could help thousands of children get the education they deserve.  There are lots of reasons why this is difficult, but none of them stacks up against the potential benefits.  It is absolutely vital that donors and BMWEC work together to find the way forward.

There will be an open meeting between donors and BMWEC in March.  This is an important initiative by BMWEC.  Let's hope it produces the results we all hope for.

Tuesday Agape, Burma Children's Medical Fund, STDC, Sky Blue

First stop of the day is Agape school.  Agape's headmaster is the extraordinary David, a convinced Christian who gave up his good job in Bangkok to look after children on the border.  Now he has nearly 200, of whom he and his wife have adopted 20 to help them stay in Thailand.  David believes that his children need to start every day by singing together for half an hour or so.  They come from very challenging backgrounds - the smuggling community on the riverbed, intensive farming and sweatshops.  Especially now, with the influx of new migrants thanks to the fighting on the Burma side, migrant communities and families are under pressure.  The singing helps the children settle back into their day job, which is being children, learning through instructuion and learning through play.  They have already learned a lot through experience.  The singing time is joyful.

I can't believe that I managed to leave the Burma Children's Medical Fund without pictures of the organsisers of this tiny but remarkable humanitarian initiative.  Kanchana and Kate really are the business.  Children who arrive at Mae Tao Clinic, and who are  assessed as needing surgery which is beyond the scope either of the clinic or of Mae Tao Hospital, are referred to BCMF who arrange their transfer to Chiang Mai hospital, and pay for their treatment.  Typical cases include children with heart problems which have gone undiagnosed and untreated in Burma, occasional gunshot or mine injuries, tumours.  Each case has to be carefully documented. Every Thursday a truck leaves Mae Sot with around 9 patients aboard - plus carers who will live in the 'safe house' in Chiang Mai for as long as their child is in hospital, which may be anything from a few days to a few months.  Everyone on the bus is in Thailand with 'migrant worker' status, and Chiang Mai is outside the border zone.  So the Army and the Police are notified of each one, who they are, why they are on the bus, when they may be expected to return to Mae Sot.  With the generous co-operation of the Thai authorities, the truck will travel unhindered to Chiang Mai, treatment will be given, the patient will return.  This lifesaving operation is managed by just two people, Kanchana and Kate, who work very long hours for no pay to make sick children's lives a little easier.  The paperwork is meticulous - it has to be.  The care for the children is paramount - that's why they do it!  But money is very short, especially for paying some quite notable hospital bills.  Please help!

On to STTC which we saw last year.  It was something of a flagship of agricultural projects, and I had high hopes that STTC, which is a post Grade -10 programme, would be able to provide support and experienced help to schools wanting to raise fish, chickens and mushrooms.  This isn't going to happen the way we hoped. The chickens and the fishtanks have gone.  They were on someone else's land, and he wanted it back.  Ho, hum.  The mushroom shed is empty. There are only 20 students in the school, so there was a saleable surplus of mushrooms.  Money from the surplus was not used to restock the shed, which it should have been.  There is no explanation for this immediately available.  The school is, however, pursuing a different path with some success, cutting and welding steel bars to form sturdy school furniture.  This has commercial and educational possibilities.  It is hard not to be a bit crabby about the way the mushroom shed has been set aside, and it is not a topic which will be allowed to drop.  But the success of the small scale manufacturing operation should attract praise.  It works.

Sky Blue School is built beside a huge rubbish dump outside Mae Sot.  It is hugely better than the old site, which was dominated by a vast mountain of rubbish which threatened to engulf it at any moment, and eventually did.  The new school is safe, for the moment, from encroachment.  But it is not a healthy place for a school.   

That said, the staff seem happy and motivated, the children are confident, outgoing and - if their English is a reliable indicator - learning well.  Above you can see their mushroom shed, which was a TCT project.  The mushrooms have been very successful here, and lunches supported by 'Big Give'donors will start next week.  Thanks again, 'Big Give' supporters - you would be proud of what your money is achieving.

Monday: New Blood, Compasio, Starflower, Pyi Chit, Hsa Mu Htaw

The Head Teacher of new Blood School

New Blood School is indisputably poor.  It receives 15000 baht (£300) per month from the Catholic Church, nothing from anywhere else.  The teachers are not paid often, there is no money for food for children.  Yet the spirit of the school is astonishing.  The children are bright, responsive, and very obviously well-taught.  The staff are confident, competent and dedicated.  We overstayed our welcome by an hour, so warm was the welcome and so interesting the conversation. No complaints, no moaning, just intelligent questions and a simple acceptance that this is who we are, this is who you are: there is a divide which cannot be bridged. Of course that is not a view which we can share, we believe that divide can and must be bridged.  Every child is precious, each one deserves the opportunity to make the most of their life. This school does not just need help, it deserves it.  These children deserve an equal chance, and their dedicated teachers need to know the children have that equal chance.  That is all they ask.

I love Starflower Day Nursery, and I think we all do.  It is the only facility for migrant children with special needs along the whole Thai-Burma border, and helps 25 children with physical and/or learning difficulties.  The closing sing-song is a joyful, funny and moving experience.  The children are transformed by singing and dancing with the effervescent Khun Usina and the very talented guitarist.  This tiny project offers fun, friends, love and a moment of precious normality to children whose lives are beset by difficulties.

OK, a born teacher.  About 3' 6" tall, he rapped out the formula responses, rapped the board with his stick, and expected an immediate, accurate and certain response.  A huge character, like so many at Pyi Chit School.  The school, on the edge of Mae Sot, is small but essential to its community.  This year it will have help with lunches for its pupils and rent for its premises thanks to the generosity of donors to our Big Give appeal.

In the early evening we had the huge privilege to be entertained as guests of Hsa Mu Htaw school.  And when I say the school, I mean all of it, teachers and pupils.  This is a tiny but beguiling school whose head teacher, Saw Htet Htet Aung, is a woman of huge ability and charm.  Only her dedication to her children surpasses her charm.  Our invitation to dinner included a performance by the children.  There may be some film of this later, so I will confine my photos to one very apposite T-shirt above and one magically pretty photo below*

It is hard to believe that these are undernourished children from a migrant school, but that is the case.  The performance was stunning.  The children have no TV, so they practice every day.

Again, our Big Give donors have done the business for this school and their lunches start next week.

I cannot thank our supporters enough.  These children are wonderful, and the schools staff are beyond praise.  I am told that when Daw Htet Htet Aung heard that the lunch money was available, she did a little dance of joy.

Thai Children's Trust is so privileged to have the chance to work with children and teachers like those at Hsa Mu Htaw.

* You may not think the photo was beautiful, if so apologies that it does not do justice to the children and the costumes, which definitely were.

Sunday - Border Market, Thoo Mwe Khee, Hsa Thoo Lei Farm

I didn't take any photos on the actual border where Thailand stares into Myawaddy.  It would be easy and dramatic to claim that it was because it would have been dangerous, etc., but in fact I could easily have taken all the photos I wanted, I just didn't see anything I hadn't shot before.  So the picture above is of Thoo Mwe Khee post-ten project which we visited later in the day.

But before we get there, a few words about the border.  It is closed, of course.  So there are no lorries or minibuses belting back and forth.  This is costing Thailand dear.  Explanations are available.  One is that the Burmese government is somehow upset by changes to the embankments on the Thai side of the river.  Well, maybe.  Another is that the bridge has a crack in the middle so large that neither side dares let lorries cross until remedial work has been completed.  Mmmm.  Those of us old enough to remember the building of the Humber bridge in UK know how easy it is for a perfectly good bridge to be perfectly scuppered by poor soil mechanics.  But on the whole, I think the most likely explanation is that the bridge is closed because the SPDC don't want visitors in Myawaddy - or indeed, anywhere else in Karen state.  No doubt they have their reasons, see below.

We went to Thoo Mwe Khee school to see its Post ten project - this is simply a project to offer education for young people who have graduated Grade 10 at school but who have nowhere else to continue learning because the school stops at Grade 10.  The idea is to get them to university entrance standard, especially in English since the university they are most likely to attend is an international university which teaches in English.  We met some really wonderful young people whose English was excellent. Fluent, clear, and with wider vocabulary than many pupils the same age in UK.  This has been achieved in conditions which most UK pupils could hardly imagine.  Little food, no security, no comfort, no TV, no night clubs, no alcohol, no parents in some cases and - and this is the biggest deprivation - virtually no books!  If anybody deserves the chance of university education, it is these young people.  Unfortunately the cost is about $5000 U.S. per annum, so as far beyond their financial reach as the average Rubens or Picasso.

Thoo Mwe Khee is very close to the border.  Studies at the school have been in earshot of fighting and shelling which has been happening almost daily on the Burma side since November.  Recently a group of 32 men, women and children, who had fled Burma for sanctuary in Thailand, returned to tend their rice paddies on the Burma side.  They returned to Burma every day, but slept in Thailand.  One day they were ambushed, and all were killed.  Men, women and four children.  One of the children, aged 7, was shot in the back, presumably whilst fleeing the ambush.  Now you can see why, perhaps, it is better for the SPDC that the bridge stays closed.

Driving with our irrepressible Aussie guide, Shirley, on a road which runs right by the border, at times just a few yards from Burma, we were struck by how peaceful and beautiful is this part of the world.  At times there were Thai military checkpoints - which I have to say I find completely reassuring - staffed by cheerful, competent and polite Thai military.  It is easy to forget their guns are loaded.

There is a horrifying picture of a dog from Burma which came with its owner to Thailand for safety.  Obviously he went home for reasons of his own, but when he returned to Thailand it was minus one leg.  The dog is a land mine victim.  His owner, who is distraught, says they owe a huge debt to the dog, because he has shown the village that it is not safe to go home.  This place is as indiscriminately brutal as it is stunningly beautiful.

On a happier note, we finished the day with a visit to Hsa Thoo Lei's new school vegetable garden.  Quite simply the best school farm I have ever seen.  Neat, tidy, productive and tended by an enthusiastic group of pupils, enthusiastic not least because they are allowed to use the little Kubota tractor.  But they approached watering and other manual jobs with enthusiasm and care.  The farm is relatively new, but is already making a significant contribution to the school kitchen.  Hsa Thoo Lei does many things well, but this is an especially good example.

Saturday: Mae Tao Clinic

Eighty percent of prosthetics fitted at the Mae Tao Clinic are land mine victims.  Men, women and children.

The clinic is an amazing place.  An assault of noise and heat, with patients and prospective patients waiting patiently in rows outside clinics and admissions offices.  A higgledy-piggeldy cluster of buildings, which has emerged over time on the basis of necessity and possibility rather than any grand master plan.  The clinic serves around 160,000 patients each year, half each from the Burmese migrant population in Thailand and from within Burma itself.  The recent fighting on the other side of the border has affected the numbers of patients.  At the time of the fighting in Myawaddy, about a mile away, there was a stream of gunshot injuries.  Since then, the normal stream of less urgent cases has been depressed by the closure of the border locally: the 'Friendship Bridge' has been closed officially since July.  But this week a couple of  surgeons from UK are performing opthalmic surgery, and there are long queues of people formed to take advantage of their skill.  Those in urgent need have managed to find places to cross irrespective of risk.

We have an hour or more with Dr Cynthia Maung, the gentle but impressive founder of the clinic and its associated projects.  Our interest is in the Dry Food Program, which is intended to supply basic foodstuffs to children in boarding houses at migrant schools.  Generally speaking these children have come to Thailand for an education which they cannot access inside Burma, and they have no close family in the area.  They may be orphans, or their parents may still be inside Burma.  The program is supposed to provide six basic foods to the children - rice, oil, beans, fish, salt and sweet powder.  This is the bare minimum on which the children can survive, but not enough for them to thrive.  Numbers of children have grown, and prices of food are high, so at present the standard ration is two items - rice and oil*.  The figures for 2011 are stark.  There are about 3000 children in the boarding houses eligible for help from Mae Tao Clinic.  The cost of the six basic ration items is about 350 Thai baht (£7 uk) per month. Total cost per month about one million baht (£21,000).  Total annual budget about 12 million baht.  Budget forcast to be available is only 8 million baht, including, we hope, two million from Thai Children's Trust.  That leaves a shortfall of one third of the minimum sum required to give these children an inadequate diet.  The world seems to have turned its back on these migrant children, and to have lost interest in them, their welfare and their education.  We have not, but what we can do to help is so pitifully small in relation to the scale of the problems.

In the afternoon we visited the SAW children, a happy, noisy, joyous bunch of 50 children who live in a three bedroomed suburban villa with their care staff.  It is overcrowded, and the neighbours don't much like the noise.  But the children are happy and healthy and very obviously well cared for.

Once a teacher, always a teacher, Ruth Flanagan got stuck in to some serious play.  See above.

* Mae Tao Clinic point out that the ration situation in December was redeemed by a generous donation of fish paste, beans and other items.

Thursday: Camillians Lat Krabang

Fr Gioanni Contarin with some of the Lat Krabang students.

Its a year since we first visited the Camillian school at Lat Krabang for children with special needs.  There are about 20 resident students, some old friends from the Camillian Social Centre at Rayong, others new recruits.  But in the year since we first visited there have been three major developments.

First the work in local communities has expanded beyond recognition.  There were a few children coming in daily from outside.  Now there are 70.

The school had no resident physiotherapist a year ago.  Today it still has no resident physiotherapist, but it has no need of one since trainee physiotherapists from Bangkok Teaching hospitals visit almost every day.  Each child who needs it has a personally developed care plan which is devised by senior physiotherapists and paediatric orthopaedic specialists: these plans are implemented by the trainees and by the Centre staff, and reviewed and - if necessary - revised on a fortnightly basis.

The school has been registered as a centre for non-formal education under Thai government rules.  This means that each child can have a similarly tailored education plan, which meets their needs and abilities

These developments mean that each child can receive a very high level of personal service from the centre, and that is increasingly expert help is available to a very large number of children.  Attached to the headquarters of the Camillian order in Thailand, it is housed in rather a grand building.  But the staff are arm and competent.  the food is good, and the support and care given to each child are second to none in Thailand.  This project deserves more help from us than we are able to give it at present.

Wednesday: Central Purchasing.

The Central Purchasing stores at the Fr Ray Foundation may not occur immediately as the stuff from which dreams are woven, and maybe it is not exactly that.  But it is a story of huge achievement driven  by a very dedicated son of Fr Ray, Luksamapa Monyarid, known to his friends as Luke, but baptised as Raymond.

CP was the vision of Brother Denis Gervais, who has been with the Foundation since it was Fr Ray, not a Foundation.  Bro Denis was very senior in IBM and knows a great deal about business and about computing.  After years of negotiation he was able to establish Central Purchasing in 2002, with Luke in the manager's chair.

Since that time, CP has grown to encompass all the purchasing, estates maintenance, vehicle fleet management and other practical aspects of the Foundation's work.  One of the most complex tasks is receiving and compiling the requirements of each of the projects for food - the Foundation feeds more than 1,000 people three meals each day, so quantities are enormous.  The different requirements have to be complied into a single list, put out to quote or quotes, quotes accepted, orders placed, goods delivered, receipted and validated so that when a cheque is issued in payment, the Foundation is confident that it is paying for goods that were required, properly costed and ordered, and genuinely delivered.

CP also manages the Foundation's farm, delivering fresh fruit and vegetable to the projects daily.

No system is completely proof against abuse, but this one is pretty robust, well tried and efficient.  It is estimated that CP saves the Fr Ray Foundation 30,000,000 Thai baht each year (about £600,000) at a total cost of about 3,000,000 baht (£60,000).  Amazing value for money, and a great achievement by Bro Denis, Luke and the CP Team

Tuesday: Day Care, Drop In, Fountain of Life

Another project which focuses on children of poor families, especially those whose families work in construction and other poorly paid trades, is the Day Care Centre which welcomes more than  a hundred toddlers and pre-school children every day.  Each family is carefully vetted to ensure that it is genuinely eligible for the free provision given by the Drop In.  Each child is given two uniforms, a smart backpack, three meals a day, lots of fun, sleep and some training in reading, writing - even in computing (see above!).

One year ago a child from the Day Care returned to his home on the canal, and for whatever reason fell in.  He could not swim, and was drowned.  The Day Care immediately began swimming lessons for all the children to help protect them from similar accidents.  Watching one of the first swimming classes a year ago, we saw children terrified of the water, screaming and shaking with fright.  They had to be coaxed in.  Getting wet all over in funny coloured water was evidently not part of their life experience.  What a change this year, as a whole class threw itself enthusiastically into the water at the blow of a whistle - some before the whistle blew - and splashed busily across.  The only shivering this year was children chilled to the bone by spending too long in water at an arctic 20 Centigrade.  Its all about what you are used to....

On to the school for children with special needs, a heavily over-subscribed service for children facing a variety of challenges including autism and Downs.  In two small rooms a dedicated and expert staff give training, teaching, physiotherapy and other support to children who attend in shifts so that the limited resources can be shared between them, and so that each one can enjoy a period of individual attention from the staff.  For all that it is crowded and under-equipped, there is an air of happiness about this school.  It is obviously massively appreciated by its pupils and most of all by their parents, for whom it is a ray of real hope.  There are plans for the school to move across the road into a more suitable building on the site presently occupied by the Carpentry Workshop, but these appear to be on hold pending a revival in fundraising fortunes.  Expect an appeal in due course  this school is doing good work and deserves our support.

Some of the happiest people in Pattaya are the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, whose mission is to disdvantaged women. Their approach is simple and sincere, and the smiles are genuine. But their confidence is based on sound and sophisticated training, years of experience and profound, practical faith.  Pattaya is not short of disadvantaged women, not only those who are sex workers or in low paid and high risk jobs like hotel kitchens, but those working on building sites, and those in dysfunctional relationships with foreigners.  It is  hard for women in such heavily subordinate roles to feel self-respect or confidence.  The Sisters have a lot of work to do.  They offer vocational training in a number of skills - sewing, cooking, Thai massage - and in a number of more academic subjects like computer studies and, especially, languages.  Every day some 600 training sessions are delivered in their 'Fountain of Life' building: their project is the most fantastic value for money.  The purpose of their work is to equip women with the confidence and the ability to make their own choices.

'I was talking to a class', said Sr Veronica (in grey above), 'when this lady suddenly shouted out 'I want to leave him'.  There was complete silence.  Eventually I asked 'Why do you stay'.  A discussion started.  It turned out that the girl's mother needed an operation, and she needed the money the foreigner gave her to pay for her mother's care.'

There are real dilemmas faced by women, especially youngest daughters, under heavy traditional pressure to provide for their parents in poverty or old age.  In a safe space the ladies have the opportunity to share and discuss without pressure from an abusive partner or employer, and gain the confidence to take their own decisions.  Every day there is a queue of ladies on the doorstep anxious to sign up and join the ladies inside, the word-of-mouth advertising is amazingly positive.

Many of the ladies are mothers.  By helping them, we help their children to a better and more stable life.

Next blog may not appear until Friday or Saturday since we will be busy tomorrow and travelling to Mae Sot Friday.

Monday: Drop in Centre and Half-Way House

Tucked away near the intersection of two of the busiest roads in Pattaya, the Drop In Centre is the current incarnation of the rescue work which gave Fr Ray Brennan his huge reputation as a fearless defender of children's rights and safety.  There is a heartbreaking story of a child who had been kept caged, whom Fr Brennan rescued, and which clung to him for hours.

Today we were told about two little boys.  One was offered to the Drop In by the police.  He had been caught red handed, stealing DVDs.  He came from way down in the south of Thailand, he knew no-one in Pattaya, but had been told there was a lot of money here.  The Centre took him in.  Gradually they unearthed his story.  He had been travelling alone, living on the streets, for two years.  He had been all over Thailand.  He had parents, but he had fallen out with them because he had an uncontrollable temper, he had run away.  He wanted to go home.  'But will my family want me?' he asked Khun Jupe, the senior Social Worker, with tears in his eyes.  'That's my problem', said Jupe.  And solved it.  She contacted the family, who were delighted and relieved to know their boy was alive and well.  She put him in front of a psychiatrist from the local Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, who gives his time free to the Drop In.  The psychiatrist discovered that the child had a small illness which caused his temper tantrums, and which was easily managed by very light medication.  The boy was returned to his family in the south, and - so far - has lived happily ever after.  The Drop In organises about 30 such family reunions every year

Not all stories have a happy ending.  Khun Jupe and her team found a mother and son living on the beach.  The mother, a working prostitute, had to find minders to look after her boy when she had a customer.  Jupe was able to persuade her that this was an unsuitable life for the boy.  Mum gave up the boy to the Drop In, but has not given up her profession.

Numerically, the biggest problems faced by the Drop In are not children or families living rough, but the many children of building workers living in the shanties that typically accompany any major buidling project.  Hidden behind high walls of corrugated iron, these temporary villages are not immediately obvious to visitors unless they know what to look for.  Most building workers are from outside Pattaya, so their children are not eligible for education here.  The Drop In will help by adding children to its House Registration - the document that determines where a child may be educated - thus clearing the way to school.  This sometimes requires hours of patient work, locating birth certificates and identifying schools prepared to accept a new pupil of somewhat uncertain background.

Some young people cannot be reunited with their parents.  Some of these, the younger ones, can be found a place at the Fr Ray Children's Village where they settle successfully into family life.  Others may settle more easily at the Children's Home.  A very few are unable to leave the Drop In, and live there until their education and training is complete.  Two such young men, one now a trainee chef, the other an electrician, have started earning and have moved into the recently opened 'half way house' (above) where they are learning to manage their own lives, and their own money.  Paid for by the Danish supporters of the Trust, the house is small, but well-equipped and comfortable.  It fills a gap in support, and will benefit hundreds of children over coming years.

This project is tiny in numbers and costs, but does vitally important work which helps children in their hour of need.  Under Khun Jupe's management it has a planned and professional approach which brings a sense of method and order to work which can be confused and emotional.  It is great to see that this quiet professionalism brings regular happy results.