Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.
Many children living in Thailand face huge financial difficulties in going to school and getting an education. Through your donation however small you can make a big difference. Thank you

Beach outing

Somboon at her home in Kanchana- buri









Suntorn presenting Somboon's uncle with funds for food, clothing and basic living expenses.

On Saturday 4 September, O was able to arrange for a rare outing to the beach for the children. They almost never go on outings beyond the local neighbourhood so a trip to the beach was met with a lot of enthusiasm.
Unfortunately no photos survived the trip, being wiped from the phone before reaching the computer!
For the outing we hired an open air bus and invited all of the children supported by O whose expenses were met by the O donations including lunches and the hire of the bus. We also invited anyone else that wanted to come along who’s expenses were met from other sources, so it was quite a crowd.
The trip there and back took four hours each way. We left at 8:00am and arrived around midday. We spent about four hours at the beach and returned home by the evening. Everyone really appreciated this opportunity for an outing to go swimming in the sea.
Hopefully we will be able to do such trips annually in the future.
In other news Suntorn, who works for a social rights organization, in Kanchanaburi has continued to visit Somboon to present her family with funds on behalf of O and to check on their ongoing needs

This month O has started giving some assistance to Nut (centre), a 16 year old Mon girl from Sangklaburi district. She has a very minimal monthly income, and with the assistance from O she will be able to meet her school fees. She has just started to study accounting at a vocational school in Kanchanaburi.

Karen village update

We have just returned from a short visit to the Karen village where O has been assisting the local teacher of traditional Karen music dance and language. Following the previous visit where O was able to give some assistance towards repairing the old musical instruments and buying some new ones, the work has now been completed and the teaching of Karen dance and music has been continuing. The cost of repairs and the new instruments had been slightly underestimated and O was able to provide the small extra amount needed for the repairs.
The group has just recently been able to put on a dance and music show for all of the village during the Songkran new year festival. It will probably not be necessary for O to provide any further assistance to the village but we will continue to keep in contact.

Hi everyone, O has recently started assisting Ben. He is 7 years old and attends a local school in Kanchanaburi. Both of his parents have died recently and he has been living with his uncle and aunt and two cousins. This has placed a lot of pressure on the family's stretched resources. O has been able to start providing regular assistance with daily school expenses.

Happy New Year everyone. In the past few months O has been continuing to support the people mentioned previously in the blog. Things have gone well and we want to thank you very much in supporting the various projects.
In December and January O has been in contact with a small Karen village in the jungle near Sangklahburi, about 200 kilometres from the town of Kanchanaburi. Up until three years ago the village had no electricity. Now they have solar power which provides lights, telephones and television etc. A giant leap backwards perhaps that appears to divide the villagers along lines of traditional values. The village also has a primary school where the children are taught the standard curriculum in the Thai language according to the legal requirements of the educational system. The Karen language, lifestyle and traditions are becoming threatened by the increasing encroachment of the modern world.

In response to this Dai, a local villager has initiated a Karen language teaching programme at the school one day a week. Dai also teaches traditional Karen dance and and music most evenings. There are about 30 young dance students and 6 music students. For all his efforts Dai receives no payment and is required to cover the costs of repairing and upgrading his musical instruments himself. The sala, an open air roofed hall where they practice has holes in the roof and leaks making practice much more difficult in the rainy season. Dai has approached us to ask if we were in a position to help him to cover some of the costs of his work so that he may continue promoting the culture of his village. O has therefore agreed to provide him with a single payment of 5,000 baht to assist with the repair of the roof and musical instruments.