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More than 800 children have passed
through Pattaya Orphanage doors
Toy from Pattaya Orphanage is
presented a Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the Pattaya City Expats
Club by Board Member and former Chairman Richard Smith for her excellent
presentation on the Pattaya Orphanage and the Human Help Network Foundation.
Since the Pattaya Orphanage opened in 1974, more than 800
children have passed through its doors. Radchada (Toy) Chomjinda spoke to
the Pattaya City Expats Club at their Sunday, February 23 meeting. Toy is
well known to the club through her long association with the Pattaya
Orphanage and bringing the orphanage’s choir to entertain the club at their
annual Christmas celebration. She was the secretary to the founder Father
Ray Brennan, a Redemptorist Priest, until his passing away and then
volunteered to continue on as the Orphanage’s Inter-Country Adoptions
Representative.
She presented a short video about the orphanage, after which she talked
about its current projects, its history and her involvement with the
organisation. She explained how The Pattaya Orphanage was started by Father
Ray using land provided by the Catholic Diocese of Chanthaburi. Further,
today, the orphanage has 50 babies (and 50 registered nurses to look after
them) included in its current occupancy of 180 children. Toy explained that
all the children are not orphans in that they have no parents; some were
abandoned while others were placed there by parents who did not have the
resources to bring up their children.
The orphanage also has a school for the deaf. The school for the deaf has
children aged 3-9; they study at a kindergarten in the orphanage for three
years, Toy explained.
PCEC member David Andersen
invites members and guests to join with him in participating in the Father
Ray Foundation sponsored St Patrick’s Day parade and festivities on March
17.
Toy introduced two alumni of the Pattaya Orphanage:
Piroon Noi-Imjai (nickname Pakin) and Pornsook Chuerjangchin (nickname Lam).
She explained that Pakin started living in the orphanage when he was three
years old. He is now 29, has graduated from university and is a social
worker with a foundation in Bangkok that works with slum children. Pakin
spoke for a few minutes about Father Ray and how the Orphanage helped him
with his education and his life. Toy described Lam as the elder sister to
all of the children in the orphanage. Lam also spoke for a few minutes how
Father Ray and the orphanage had also given her the opportunity to have a
good life.
Toy came to work for the Pattaya Orphanage more than 20 years ago after a
varied career that included working in two embassies in Bangkok and being a
fundraising assistant for UNICEF. She came to Pattaya to meet with Father
Ray to ask him for a meaningful job in which she could gain and at the same
time contribute. She worked as private secretary to Father Ray for more than
eight years. Towards the end of this period, Father Ray became ill and was
unable to come to office every day or to put in a full shift. Toy said she
took on some of Father Ray’s responsibilities and this helped her to learn
the ropes.
Radchada (Toy) from the Pattaya
Orphanage introduces Piroon (Pakin) and Pornsook (Lam) who spoke to the PCEC
about how their lives were improved by the care and education they received
through the orphanage.
Toy described the feelings of uncertainty about what
would happen to the Orphanage after Father Ray died, and that this was one
of the reasons the Father Ray Foundation was established in 2002. Father Ray
died in August 2003. She explained how the Father Ray Foundation and the
Pattaya Orphanage separated in 2007 and how this presented her with a
dilemma; should she go with the foundation or stay at the orphanage? Since
she was the only one at the orphanage working on inter-country adoptions she
did not want to see that work stopped - thus she decided to stay with the
orphanage and agreed to work as a volunteer since the orphanage had very
little capital at that time.
PCEC members and guests enjoy
watching the informative video on the work of the Pattaya Orphanage; now
celebrating its 40th year.
Toy said that in 2008 she helped establish the Human Help Network Foundation
(HHNF) as a fundraising arm for the orphanage and its projects. She is now
the director of the HHNF. Also, the HHNF established the child protection
and development project on its own. Its mission is to support children and
adolescents in need and to fight child trafficking in Thailand and South
East Asia.
Toy explained that several embassies in Bangkok donated funds to HHNF which
was used to build houses for the children to live in. She said that children
of different ages lived in these homes in an attempt to make it feel more
like a family. She added that this project did not take away from funds
raised from the regular Pattaya Orphanage benefactors which are used
entirely for the benefit of the orphanage.
People who want to donate to the orphanage can do so through the HHNF or
through the orphanage directly. Toy explained that the Pattaya Orphanage has
a programme whereby donors can sponsor individual children. Full
sponsorship, which is 70,000 baht a year, is beyond the means of many
would-be donors, so a partial sponsorship category was created whereby
donors can give 5,500 baht a year or 450 baht a month.
For more information on Pattaya Orphanage, visit
www.thepattayaorphanage.org. Information on the Human Help Network
Foundation is available at http://www. hhnthailand.org.
After Toy answered several questions, Master of Ceremonies Richard
Silverberg brought everyone up to date on current activities and events and
called on Roy Albiston to conduct the always interesting and informative
Open Forum; a time when questions are asked and answered about Expat living
in Thailand, especially Pattaya.
For more information on the Club’s many activities visit www.pcecclub.org.
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YWCA, RCES donate mushroom garden, cash to Fountain of Life Center
Nigel Quennell and Praichit
Jetpai cut the ribbon to officially launch the project, whilst Maggie Travis
(2nd left), Russell Iffland (3rd left), Sister Kanyanee Tuanrussmee (4th right),
and Nicha Loychun (2nd right), along with YWCA members, Fountain of Life staff
and children cheer them on.
Urasin Khantaraphan
The YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center and Rotary Club of the Eastern Seaboard brought
healthy food and lowered expenses for the Fountain of Life Children’s Center
with the donation of a mushroom-cultivation garden.
YWCA Chairwoman Praichit Jetpai hosted the Feb. 21 event at the Catholic-backed
non-governmental organization and was joined by RCES President Nigel Quennell
and Nicha Loychun, owner of the Nicha Clinic, and her staff.
Fountain of Life is a day-care center for children at risk and provides
education, health care, counseling, therapy, documentation and preparation for
children to enter government school at 7 years old.
The 8-sq.-meter garden will let the center harvest mushrooms to use in a variety
of meals from soup to vegetable stir-fry. Growing its own food will help the
center lower its expenses, charity officials said.
The YWCA and Nicha also used the event to provide free health and dental checks
to the 130 children, who also received medicine, when necessary, and lunch and
toys.
Quennell also donated 10,000 baht for food and medicine to the center on behalf
of the club.
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Rotary releases US$35.9 million
to fight polio in Africa and Asia
Petina Dixon-Jenkins
The continued fight to eliminate polio has been given an additional $36
million boost from Rotary in support of polio immunization activities and
research to be carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which
aims to end the disabling viral disease worldwide by 2018.
The funding commitment comes at a critical time as the
eradication initiative focuses on stopping polio in the three countries where
the virus remains endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Stopping polio in
those countries is crucial in order to halt the recent spate of outbreaks in
countries where the disease had previously been beaten and where mass
immunizations of children via the oral polio vaccine must continue until global
eradication is achieved.
The Rotary grants include $6.8 million for Afghanistan, $7.7 million for Nigeria
and $926,000 for Pakistan. Grant amounts are based on requests from eradication
initiative partners UNICEF and the World Health Organization, which work with
the governments of polio-affected countries to plan and carry out immunization
activities.
UNICEF will use a grant of $2.73 million to bolster vaccination activities
throughout the Horn of Africa as part of an on-going response to an outbreak
that began in 2013 and has now infected more than 200 children. The so-called
“imported” cases are linked to the strain of polio endemic to Nigeria,
underscoring the need to stop the virus in the endemic countries.
The other countries where Rotary funds will be used to fight polio are Burkina
Faso, $2.1 million; Cameroon, $3.4 million; Democratic Republic of Congo, $3.9
million; Niger, $2.3 million; Somalia, $1.3 million; South Sudan, $2.6 million;
and Sudan, $1.2 million.
WHO also received $934,000 to study the impact of introducing injectable,
inactivated polio vaccine into the immunization program as part of the
initiative’s endgame plan, as the goal of global eradication nears.
Unrelated to this round of grants, Rotary released $500,000 in December 2013 as
an emergency response to the polio outbreak in strife-torn Syria, which had not
reported polio since 1999. Through Jan. 31, there were 23 confirmed cases in
Syria since October 2013, all traceable to the polio strain circulating in
Pakistan.
Rotary launched its polio immunization program PolioPlus in 1985 and in 1988
became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with
the WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since
the initiative launched in 1988, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more
than 99 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to 369 confirmed so far for
2013.
Rotary’s main responsibilities within the initiative are fundraising, advocacy,
and social mobilization. To date, Rotary has contributed more than $1.2 billion
and countless volunteer hours to fight polio. Through 2018, every new dollar
Rotary commits to polio eradication will be matched two-to-one by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation up to $35 million a year.
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2 Norwegians cross Greenland on skis
in Baan Jing Jai fundraiser
Totto Befring shows off two of the signed tiles at
Baan Jing Jai. (Photo: Dujdao Udomsin)
Totto Befring
Two Norwegians joined an expedition to recreate the 1888 cross-country
skiing expedition across Greenland to help raise funds for Pattaya’s Baan Jing
Jai orphanage.
In April & May of 2013, Nils Lie and Totto Befring, employees at Wallenius
Wilhelmsen Logistics in Oslo, traced the 560 km. route pioneered by Fridtjof
Nansen, in temperatures of down to -36 C, with nary a companion, except for the
occasional polar bear.
Totto Befring waves the Thai and Norwegian flags during
the crossing. (Photo: Jon Birger Skjaerseth, Oslo, Norway)
One team of six people, each of whom had their own 50 kg. sled, and three tents
set out on the endeavor. The limitation on weight was extremely strict, but they
still carried a bottle of water from sponsor Aqua Vitae, which was auctioned off
upon their return to Norway for 30,000 baht that was then donated to Baan Jing
Jai.
Lie said he did the trip because he loves the outdoors and, especially,
cross-country skiing. So when Befring, who had this dream since the 80s,
approached him with the idea and a plan, the choice was easy.
But the process to be eligible was strict, requiring a weapons license, a radio
course, and medical and rescue insurance.
Sjur Mordre from Oslo leads the 6 man troop across
Greenland. (Photo: Jon Birger Skjaerseth, Oslo, Norway)
“It was vital to have a professional setup and our experienced leader, Sjur
Mordre, has not only crossed Greenland successfully 12 times before, but he was
also the first person together with his brother to reach both the North and
South Pole,” Befring said.
The first thing they had to do upon their arrival in Greenland was to pack the
daily food rations. Large boxes had to be repacked into specified daily lunch
rations.
“The lunch rations were varied with, for example, biscuits, chocolate,
multigrain crackers and salami. With standing breaks lasting ten minutes every
hour, it can actually be quite a challenge to eat,” Lie said.
Totto Befring, Bangkok, and Nils Lie, Oslo, Norway,
hold up the bottle of Liner Aqua Vitae during their cross-country ski across
Greenland. (Photo: Jon Birger Skjaerseth, Oslo, Norway)
The daily routine
“It’s fascinating how quickly you fall into a daily routine,” Lie said. The day
started at 6 a.m. with two hours devoted to preparation, including melting snow
for water. After 7-9 hours of effective skiing, the group set up camp for the
evening. Dinner was eaten in the expedition leader’s tent, which they jokingly
called the Hilton, as it was larger than other tents.
“Dinner was the only chance we all had to talk together and discuss the day’s
progress. The food wasn’t the biggest subject of discussion, but dry chili con
carne mixed with boiling water does its job,” Lie said.
Navigation was dependent upon vigilant use of compasses. “After a while, you
become quite good at navigating by the angle of snow blowing across your skis as
well as the sun,” Lie said. “that is, when we were lucky enough to see it.”
The journey proved to be harder than the two had expected. When it was snowing
heavily, they were only able to move at approximately 2 km. per hour. The
weather was particularly bad for this time of year.
“We had to spend the last three days in camp. One night it snowed 1.5 meters and
we had to get up in the middle of the night to remove snow to prevent our tent
from being buried,” he said.
But after 8-10 hours of skiing per day in those conditions, they still were
exhausted enough to sleep.
The bad weather meant the expedition had to be called off after they had covered
500 km., only 60 km. downhill from the final destination. Being delayed five
days already, and without enough food to cover the remaining distance, there
were no hard feelings when the helicopter came to pick them up.
“When Nils and I had to share a cracker for lunch we finally understood that we
couldn’t go on,” Befring said.
The bottle of Liner Aqua Vitae the two carried had been made especially for
their company and had crossed the equator eight times. It was a much-desired
prize in the auction in Oslo and raised the equivalent of 30,000 baht for Baan
Jing Jai, which earned the team three golden tiles in support of the new Baan
Jing Jai building.
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