July 2018 Update

This is Florence from Supporting Heart, with the July 2018 News Update.

In this newsletter:

HOME VISIT

In July we undertook home visits to drug addicted and homeless people in the Tachilek area (see the photo below). Some of these people are anxious to get off the addiction in order to get a job. Unfortunately many young children and teenagers are also addicted to computer games and drugs. At the shop where they play these games, drugs are also available initially as “free” tasters and afterwards for sale. This is the environment from which we strive to motivate and support children to work towards a better life of good health, dignity and self-sustainability.

SAFE HOUSE NEWS

HOW WRONG THEY ALL WERE!

Each month I plan to update you on the progress we are making in the lives of one of the precious children who stay with us in Baan Rainbow House. They are a small minority of all the impoverished children we work with. We take them into the house because their cases are the most desperate.

This month I will tell you about Bee (not her real name). We are very limited in what we can say and that is why we block out the children’s faces. However within the limits of what the authorities allow us to say, I will tell you her story. Bee is not an orphan – she does have a mother and a grandmother, but both have serious memory deficiencies due to much class A drug abuse over many years. We took Bee into the safe house at age 6 because we feared she was liable to being trafficked. With our help she attended school for the first time. She is a very bright girl and now aged 8 she came first out of her year of 120 children! The second photo shows her receiving a trophy. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! Bee now dreams of becoming a lawyer, some day.

The success Bee achieved may be extreme but everyday we who work with the children see little successes and lives transformed. They inspire us to persevere despite the daily challenges. I look forward to sharing these little stories with you monthly. They show what a difference your support makes possible in the lives of highly vulnerable children.

Bee is just one of our Baan Rainbow children whose life has changed beyond her wildest dreams. Over the coming months, you will hear of many more children who were once written off as having no future, and whose lives have been dramatically improved.

HOW TO HELP

We need your help to keep their home, Baan Rainbow, open.

The overall annual cost of maintaining Baan Rainbow is US$77,000 (2.46m Thai Baht). At present we have 21 people living in Baan Rainbow (17 students and 4 staff members) living in a 3 bedroom single story house. The cost to keep each student in the house is as follows:

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We need your help to keep Baan Rainbow open. I cannot imagine the trauma and tragedy these precious lives would experience if they had to return to living on and off the street and end their schooling. Donations large or small, regular or one off are all welcome.