And then there was one...

Hi everyone! So I thought it was time for an update, to let you all know I'm still alive and well and settling nicely into life in Pakkred.
Pakkred is about 40 mins from Bangkok and from what I can gather taxis don't particular like coming out of their Bangkok zone to bring people here. Thankfully the hotel found me one willing to take me and armed with my map in thai the taxi man delivered me safely to the charity last Monday. It was an eventful first day, my ear infections making it difficult to hear what anyone was saying, a real issue when it's difficult enough to understand the thai/english accent! Anyway, after work they took me to the doctor (I'm not convinced of his qualifications) who diagnosed that i had a perferated ear drum and needed to go to hospital. So, back to Bangkok we went to visit the ENT clinic who thankfully diagnosed it was just infections, they even poked cameras in so i could see - not pleasant i can tell you! Sparing you all the disgusting information, an hour later, after a hearing test in thai (the audiologist found it hilarious getting me to speak thai) I walked out being able to hear again with a bag of medications to clear it all up which have been succesful you'll be glad to know!

I'm living in Sirin House with 8 other volunteers and a few geckos - it's a busy house spread out on 4 floors but actually much nicer than i expected. We each have a mattress on the floor and a fan, which i'm so grateful for at night - its really hot and sticky! During the day we go off to 3 different projects which I'll try and give you a run down of as i work at all of them, there are others but I feel this blog's going to be long enough anyway!

Firstly, I'll just say a bit about the charity I'm working for, for those who don't know.  I'm volunteering for CCD (Christian care foundation for Children with Disabilities). It was set up by a Thai couple who, when international aid stopped coming to Thailand, they saw the ongoing desperate need of orphaned/abandoned disabled children.  Disabled children are abandoned for 2 main reasons, lack of social care funds and cultural issues. Lack of social care funds is the most common issue as the parents need to work to live and cannot leave these children safely at home. There aren't the day care/school facilities available to meet their needs and there isn't the education and support to help the parents care for the children at home. Secondly, as a Buddhist country a disabled child brings bad luck and great shame on a family as they believe that they must have been bad in previous life and deserve this 'affliction'. Both of these issues lead to children being abandoned and they end up in the government orphanages. Some of these children are loved, left by families who want them but just can't provide for them, can't afford to keep them and I honestly don't know which is sadder, being loved and left or being left becuase you're not wanted.

So, the 3 main projects we work in are Rainbow house (the main CCD project), Rachawadee girls (the government home for girls aged 8+ pronounced Ra-chow-dee) and Fuang Fah (Girls and boys aged, theoretically, up to 8 yrs). There is Rachawadee Boys too but, unfortunately, the new leader of the orphanage won't permit CCD to go in.

This explains the projects much better than I'd be able to....http://www.ccdthailand.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26 .. but i will give a quick run down of the things it doesn't say...

Rainbow House is a 20 minute hair raising cycle away from Sirin house, and is the best thing that can happen to the kids in the government homes, it gives them the possiblity and hope of escaping a life which nobody deserves and enter a loving environment they can flourish in. A lot of the older kids who are resident there go to school so we don't see them but the younger ones come to the day centre.  We also have kids come in from Fuang Fah by bus and others come from the community to give the parents respite during the day and allowing them still to work.
The days are chaotic, we start by getting the children to line up outside and they raise the Thai flag and sing the national anthem and pray for the day.  We have a morning activity and then lunch followed by showers (conveyor belt- esque) and then its nap time!!! Afterwards its time for afternoon snack and music then its time for those who aren't residents to go home and those left, to play as they will - it's mayhem!!! I don't doubt these kids get a significant amount more stimulation than they would at the gov. homes but there's still so much more potential for this centre.  From a physio point of view it's frustrating that they have a hydrotherapy pool, which would be great for some of the kids, and a well kitted out physio room but these facilites aren't used to their full potential. There isn't the staff to allow regular use of the hydro pool or for children to be taken off regularly for one-to-ones, its done on a 'as and when' basis.

I actually spent my whole first week at Rainbow house, thinking all of the above and then have had 2 days in the government homes (1 day at Rachawadee and 1 at Fuang Fah) when I've realised just how great Rainbow house actually is. I don't think I can adequately describe to any of you the government homes but I'm going to try and be as objective as possible.

The government homes are really close to Sirin house and they are each named as to what 'type' of children they house - from those who are able-bodied, those who are disabled but mentally intact, deaf, blind, babies...the lists go on - i don't even know how many homes there are, they are just everywhere down long roads and side streets. 

Rachawadee girls has lots of buildings within it housing the girls on wards (previously these were named according to the most prevalent condition on the ward, now they are named by colours). I've only been on 2 so far, the sick ward and yellow ward (mainly children with Cerebral palsy) which I'm told aren't the worse. Yellow ward has probably 15 beds, each bed has 3-4 children in it. There will be 2 ward mums to look after all these children, it's no wonder the state a lot of them are in. Without movement a lot of these kids are left with heavily contracted limbs which are stuck and will not improve with physio. They can't necessarily move much for themselves so they have sores on the back of their heads from lying on their backs all day. We take a few of them to the day care centre at the home in wheelchairs which wouldn't pass any kinds of English health and safety tests, let alone be suited for the child. At the centre we help them to move a little, get them into different positions, help them with an activity (this week was messy play) and most of all just give them the love and attention they need and deserve.  The afternoon I was there we took 5 of the older girls in taxis down to Pakkred swimming pool - it's so lovely to hear them giggle!

The wards at Fuang Fah aren't divided up by the childrens condition, as far as i can tell. I was so overwhelmed at how many children there are here! We only really go to the wards to collect the children selected to come to the homes day centre and to drop them off after...here there's less beds and more just thin mattresses to go on the floor, I doubt every child gets a piece of mat to sleep on. Again we do an activity in the morning, some singing, have lunch and then another activity in the afternoon - they have a fantastic soft play room which was exhausting with very energetic kids!!

From now on I'm going to be going to Rachawadee 2 times a week, Rainbow House 2 times and Fuang Fah for 1 day, but yeh, that's a relatively brief run down of what i'm doing...I could probably talk for a lot longer as I'm sure many of you don't doubt but I won't! Overall, so far, I'm having a challenging and frustrating time, every day is heart wrenching...but the kids are awesome, they put everything they have into every activity we do and they deserve so much more than we could ever possibly give them - any of you who fancy doing a sponsored activity or who can spare a few months to come and volunteer please think of CCD!!

Ooo quickly, just to finish, we went away this weekend with the church everyone goes to. We're really blessed that there's what can only be described as a compound near us where a lot of americans who work for big organisations in the city, or who teach live. They have an olympic size swimming pool we can use on sundays after church and they're really supportive off CCDs work, letting us take some of the kids to their swimming pools and for food etc.  Anyway, so we went 2 hours away, on an air con coach (luxury!) to one of CCD's community projects which was damanged by the flooding in October last year. We spent the Saturday painting and decorating and transforming it back into a nice centre to be used to support families with disabled children living in the surrounding villages. It was a really fun weekend meeting and getting to know people outside of CCD.

Right enough rambling from me...if you've made it to the end, well done!!! 

Love and hugs to you all

xxxx