Rachawadee girls

Hello everyone,

It’s hard to believe how fast my time out here is going. I have been here in Pakkred Thailand for 8 weeks now. Thankfully the political situation in Bangkok seems to have calmed down for the time being. I am about half an hour outside Bangkok and were at one stage affected by the unrest.

I thought I would write a wee bit more about what we’ve been up to and how things are going. I am working alongside three other British volunteers which is great because we can be great support for one another when things are particularly tough or we see situations that affect us or find difficult. There are also volunteers from other countries and it is really nice to work with them and get to know them.

I cannot express how much I am enjoying working for CCD. I am working in the CCD day care centre at Baan Fung Fah. Baan Fung Fah is the home for disabled children under the age of seven, but actually in reality the majority of these children are actually older than this. Many of these are abandoned children. The CCD day care centre is a building next to the orphanages that the government have allowed CCD to use to take a few children out each day.

There are 4 government orphanages – babies, children, girls and boys. Within these orphanages there are many many wards which split the children up into their abilities and needs. Sadly in the government wards we are seeing wards and wards full of many many disabled children. It is really hard to see, and is why CCD is so important in this situation here.

As volunteers we work with CCD, who really are a fantastic organisation. We are allowed to take some children out of the wards for the day into the day care centre where we work with them. The hope is that some of these children may thrive because of the extra love and attention they can be given. We start work by picking up the children from the wards. They are always waiting for us and are really pleased to see us, which is lovely because we feel we are doing some good for these children. We take them back to CCD and do some music with them, which is usually singing lots of Thai songs, some of them I recognise in English. Then the children have snack. Then we help to shower and change the children (Thai’s like to shower a lot, I guess it has something to do with the heat!). We then have an hour or so before lunch. In this time we are free to play with the children, take them to the sensory room, do some physiotherapy with them and just spending time with them. Then we give the children lunch. Many of the children are not able to feed themselves or have to have special chopped up food so we help feed the children. Some of the kids then go back to the wards, they are usually the ones who require extra care. The others stay behind and have a sleep. In the afternoon we are free to play with the children again. Often some different children come for the afternoon. We sometimes go to the little playground outside the day care centre. Then later on we take the children back to the wards. Often some of them get a bit upset about going back. This is often really hard to see, we feel we just want to be able to do something more for them but are unable to.

At times we see some very distressing scenes. Older disabled teenagers/adults are expected to care for the other children. However, we try not to think too much about these negative aspects of our work, instead we try to focus on all the positives and just think of how much good we are doing for those that we are able to work with, although there are still many many more who we cannot care for. We are able to support one another and touch the lives of these few children.

All these photos that I am posting are of the CCD day care centre. It is just important to remember that this is only a tiny proportion of the children in the orphanages and that although CCD is an amazing facility for these children.

I am gradually improving my Thai and learning to eat strange foods and cope with the amazing heat. The wonderful rain and dramatic thunderstorms are never more welcome.

I would really appreciate prayer support for me and the team as we continue our work here.

Keep looking onto the next page because I have uploaded quite a few photos recently.