1- In Mukdahan visitors from different churches:
Twenty-seven Danish students aged 16-20 did a 2 week outreach with the Lutheran church in Mukdahan. Apart from the activities that the church had organised for them they also came to Siam-Care for a day.
After devotions together with the very enthusiastic young singers, the staff explained the work of Siam-Care in Mukdahan and the students had time to ask their many questions. In the afternoon they split up in 4 groups and went on home and school visits.
Group 1 went to a primary school where they performed a speechless drama about love and forgiveness. Without any words the message came across strongly and the students were very quiet and attentive.
Group 2 visited Ying and his wife Em: In November Ying had barely managed to travel back home to his mother as he was desperately ill and had starting bedsores. By the time SC met him the bed sore was not only bigger than a hand but very deep as well. He has also become paralysed on one side of his body so Em had a 24 hour task of keeping him clean, fed and comfortable. SC staff managed to get him admitted to the hospital after he was first refused as there was nothing to be done. But with much loving care and prayers the healing process started; it was very slow at first but by the time the Danish students visited Ying and Em, Ying was practicing walking outside the house, the bedsore has healed beautifully and Ying is learning to speak again. The students sang for the family and laid on hands on the couple as they prayed the Lord's blessing over the. Not long afterwards Ying and Em accepted the Lord and are now regularly visited by the church.
Group 3 visited an HIV positive orphan girl and played games with her and her neighbour friends.
Group 4 visited the jail and did some drama and singing, giving the inmates and unforgettable afternoon.
From the local Baptist church friends from the USA came on a day visit with our staff and saw houses, families and lives they had never imagined.
2- Sing, one of the SC dad's who has been in our project almost since the start, celebrated a very special day on the 27th of February; his wedding day! Sing lost his first wife many years ago and he himself was terminally ill too. He was able to start on medication and his health climbed back although very slowly. About 3 years ago he was well again, able to work and realised he was handed a second chance in life and made the best of it; he worked hard, was a good father to his son Suah and stopped all unhealthy life practices. Sing gave his life to the Lord and started going to church, it was in church that he became friendly with a widowed mother from the SC project, Sam. Sam has a daughte Muk and last month on the wedding day, both Muk and Suah were were the brides maid and 'man of honor' for the parents.
3-Mukdahan Team visits Laotian schools:
Siam-Care in Mukdahan is part of a project called “I am a child”, a project that tackles Human Trafficking through giving out information on safe migration, laws in the country of home as well as the country they migrate to and explaining what to do when in trouble; where to go for help.
Siam-Care will organise a Training of Teachers (ToT) for 40 Laotian and 20 Thai teachers in April on this subject. To invite the Laotian teachers the staff crossed the bridge to Laos, met with the provincial ministry of education and visited various schools. It soon became clear that the further out into the country side the poorer the schools were; dark without any electicity, overcrowded, leaking roofs, broken walls, desks and benches. and no toilets.
With the teachers earning a salary from 1,200 Baht (26 Euro) to the headmaster 3,000 Baht (66 Euro) a month it wasn't surprising that some could not be found in the classroom but were busy on their fields. Also not surprising is that some kids don't come back for the afternoon sessions as they know there is a big possibility that the teacher will not be there which just means they have to walk back again the 2-3 km they came.
All teachers expressed that migration is a huge issue in their schools, many high school students disappear overnight and stop coming to school abruptly. Mostly they have left the village and crossed over the river to Thailand with a friend or relative to join the work force,hoping to become rich. It was quite obvious in the very poor villages that those who had children coming to work in Thailand had the better houses, so the pull to migrate is strong. This is most likely hard to stop but at least those who chose to migrate should know their rights and laws to prevent exploitation and create ways of safe migration. The teachers need to learn this first so they can pass it on to the students.
4-Bangkok team to Pattaya
The Bangkok team went to Pattaya to the Project Life slum ministry doing an afternoon of HIV awareness training for a gorup of 10 women.
5-Siam-Care Phang Nga staff Netima got engaged to be married in June to Annon.
