SOUTHEAST ASIA: BOYS’ PROJECTS
Oftentimes our kids come from backgrounds where there is a lack of one or sometimes both parents. Commonly the boys have been cared for by their elderly grandparents (who can barely cope). A number of our Thai young people have fathers who have gone far away to find work but sadly a number of these men have got involved in drugs and/or do not send any money home to support their families. Hopelessness, lack of any clear future, desperation, and drugs are common themes for our children.
Our Thai work moved even further upcountry to the province of Nakorn Phanom, where we have located extremely poor children. Currently, we care for 17 young people with the scope to mentor many more in the future. This new phase of the project is led by one of our graduates, Dr. Santi Watiroirum. Dr. Santi came to live with us when he was 12 years old. Now at the age of 39 years, he is an academic who teaches biology at the local university. Because he himself was a poor boy from a rice-growing family, he is well able to identify at-risk young people.
Nakhon Phanom is a small and very charming city that sits on the banks of the Mekong River. From the city, they can look straight over the river into Laos.
Currently, he is placing young people into local church communities where they can get to know other people. We support their school fees while the church partners with us in developing them. On a regular basis, all of the kids meet together (sometimes via Zoom) with Santi and other board members.
Some of our kids live in insecure areas. This results in them being itinerant and having to change village location. In fact, they had been attending very low-grade “mobile schools”. These are schools that follow the villagers around, moving according to where the villagers find themselves. In most cases, the villagers move because they are fleeing from violence and conflict. They are akin to being refugees within their own country. How can children like this ever advance? Sometimes their school has no schoolteachers. Before coming to live with us, some of them were in this predicament. They had lived so remotely that they had never been to a town before and had never seen a white person except on TV.
AZ started living with us from 2022. He is 18 years old and is studying in 11th grade. His mother is a Christian and his father is Buddhist. His parents make their family income by working on a rubber farm. Unfortunately, AZ’s father wastes his income drinking and only on his own personal wants. This means that the family is surviving only with the mother’s monthly income of NZD$200 (USD120). She has one day off per week. They eat just two meals a day. For mum to purchase rice alone for her family costs NZD$145 (USD87). So, what happens if a family member is sick or needs a tooth filled or must travel to another city or worse yet, someone in the family gets cancer? Well, presumably, cancer would be a death sentence. How can AZ’s mum pay for his school fees and a uniform? Well, she can’t. And that’s why we selected him.