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Sporting heroes donate sporting equipment to
Redemptorist Vocational School for People with Disabilities
Somjit won a gold medal for
boxing, but he is also a fan of Muay Thai.
Derek Franklin
Think of Thailand’s medal history at the summer Olympic Games and
there are two sports that the Kingdom has done better in than any other
sports; boxing and weightlifting.
It was at the Beijing 2008 Games that Somjit Jongjohor won a gold medal in
the Flyweight division, while Pra pawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, who apart
from having the longest name of any Olympic champion, lifted her way to a
gold medal in the Women’s 53 kg weightlifting competition.
They returned to Thailand as superstars and while Somjit moved into the
world of entertainment and became a well known actor, Prapawadee joined the
armed forces, but both became brand ambassadors for Siam Sport, Thailand’s
largest sports media company.
Both recently traveled to the Father Ray Foundation to donate sporting
equipment to the students with disabilities at the Redemptorist Vocational
School for People with Disabilities.
There they met the children and students from the projects managed by the
Father Ray Foundation. They were entertained with a traditional dance
routine from the young girls, the special needs children hosted a magic show
and the boys from the Children’s Home gave an exhibition of Muay Thai.
Prapawadee was very happy to meet a fellow weightlifter, Prakit Thongsang, a
wheelchair user who has traveled the world representing the Kingdom, and
bringing home a large haul of medals.
It was a wonderful opportunity for the children and students to meet two
professional athletes, and to hear from two ordinary people whose hard work
and dedication has earned them rewards that are in the reach of everyone.
More information can be found at www.fr-ray.org or email
[email protected].
Olympic weightlifting gold
medal winner Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon is happy to sign an autograph.
Prapawadee meets Prakit
Thongsang, a fellow gold medal weightlifter.
Somjit meets a fan.
The sporting heroes watched an
exhibition of Muay Thai.
The blind students were very
excited to be meeting their hero.
The young dancers from the
Father Ray Children’s Village.
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Farewell to our oldest students
The IB2 students’ siblings delivered a special
message by singing for them.
Mark Beales
Photos by Ritche Guisona
Garden International School (GIS) held a whole school assembly to say farewell
to its oldest students.
Students in Year 13 are studying for their International Baccalaureate Diploma
Programme and their final official day at school was on April 25. The IB2 group
(those in their second and final IB year) were given a surprise whole school
assembly so everyone could say goodbye to them and wish them well.
The GIS IB2 students were greeted
with cheers and tickertape.
The IB2 group - the largest ever at GIS - was given a huge
welcome by students and teachers into the Main Hall. Once they had recovered,
the IB2s listened to a song performed by their younger brothers at sisters,
heard video messages from their teachers and were given a fond farewell by their
Form Tutors, Mr Gordon and Ms Tincombe.
Two of the IB2 students enjoying
their farewell assembly.
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Students and teachers
sit Drama exams at GIS
Seren Gordon (Year 9)
Garden International School (GIS) students from Years 7 to 9 have taken a series
of communication and drama examinations. Forty students and two teachers (Mr Ken
and Ms Shiells) took these assessments.
LAMDA stands for the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts. It is an academy
that gives you examination experiences and provides each and every learner with
the skills and confidence to succeed in life. On the first day of tests, it was
the communication exams, which were followed by the remaining communication
exams and drama exams.
Some people who sat the examinations went on and performed their piece at the
Music, Art and Drama (MAD) night at school, which received many complimentary
comments from the audience.
Jignil Shah, one of the students who took part said, “It was an exciting
experience and I would like to do this again next year.” Many of the students
agreed with him and thought it was a useful experience and they would be
honoured to take the exams at a higher grade next year.
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Pattaya Sports Club helps to make things
brighter at the Orphanage
The rain has caused some severe
damage.
William Macey
The Pattaya Orphanage, now in its 40th year, has close to 200 children at the
home. 30/40 are deaf and have been since birth, and there are 35 babies of 2
years or less. The youngest, when I was there recently, was 5 days old and they
need constant care and attention, which is quite demanding for the staff.
The needs of 200 children never cease and are a constant concern to Toy,
director of the Human Help Network. Care and maintenance of the buildings are,
sometimes, not on the list of priorities for a child’s wellbeing, but a recent
problem was brought to the attention of Pattaya Sports Club and that was repairs
to the staff residence.
The guttering had fallen down some time ago and water was cascading down from
the roof causing considerable damage to the area around the staff quarters. The
water had seeped into the brickwork and, apart from looking bad, the damp was
beginning to be seen in the staff quarters. This situation could not be allowed
to continue and was a major concern, for if the staff is affected by colds and
chest problems these could be passed to the children, particularly the babies.
The babies can be just a few days old and are susceptible to any colds and
viruses that they come into contact with.
Toy asked Pattaya Sports Club for some assistance, which was readily agreed by
the committee. But this was back in November and we decided that it would make
sense to leave it until March to allow the walls to dry during the very dry
period that we normally have in the first 3 months of the year.
The builders set about rectifying the problem at the end of April, before the
rains come visiting again, installing guttering, cleaning the walls, adding a
water sealant before painting and a huge improvement was immediate as you can
see.
It is a great pleasure to help Toy and her staff, for they work tirelessly to
take care of the children, but help is always needed. If you have and toys or
clothes that you no longer need, please ring me on 0861522754 or drop anything
you may have to the Pattaya Sports Club office along Third Road. One item that
is always needed are hearing aides. If you have one that is not being used,
please let us have it, even if it’s broken, for it can be repaired.
Young babies need protection.
The finished article.
The staff can now use the balcony
to relax.
Everything is looking brighter.
The damage is spreading into the
living area.
There are 35 children under 3
years old.
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BHP seminar helps parents with children’s ‘brain fitness’
Bangkok Hospital Pattaya organized
activities for children and a lecture for parents to promote their children’s
intellectual development.
Jetsada Homklin
About 60 families learned how to promote their children’s intellectual
development and diagnose attention-deficit disorders during a workshop at
Bangkok Hospital Pattaya.
The April 26 “Brain Fitness” seminar featured activities and a lecture from
BHP’s Matthew and Chayannitti Brady, who spoke on using playtime to promote
development. The talk allowed parents to exchange experiences and voice concerns
over slow development.
The couple showed parents how to use various activities to determine if their
child has an attention-deficit disorder. The most-common yardstick is whether a
young child can sit still and focused on one activity for 15-20 minutes.
However, the Bradys said, duration alone is not an absolute indicator.
Parents should change activities every 15-20 minutes and, if the child cannot
focus, address possible causes for the lack of focus, including having too much
or too little sleep, too much sugar, too much television or even food allergies.
Many children, they said, can watch TV for long periods, but television viewing
should be limited to 30 minutes, as too much watching can impede interest in
reading, they said.
Parents can check attention skills by having young children fill a bottle or two
of water or, in slightly older kids, have them bring a small spoon or a yellow
bowl from the other room.
They noted that storytelling is another activity that can lengthen a child’s
attention span, but parents should frequently ask their kids questions about the
story to check their comprehension.
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