The Pattaya City Expats Club often has two separate but distinct presentations. This was the case for their meeting on June 7. First up was Sununta Khumnunta from the Baan Jing Jai Foundation to talk about their orphanage and children’s home here in Pattaya. This was followed by Bryan Williams giving a presentation highlighting the economy and asking the question, what the hell is going on?
Khun Sununta noted that their beginning was in 1992 when Khun Piangta came to Pattaya with a priest from Bangkok’s Church of Christ. They saw there was a need to help street children. They rented a small house that they lived in and used it as a “drop-in” for these children. They sought out the many street children who hung around in Pattaya, those who tried to beg and/or sell themselves to tourists, and those who had no parents or had escaped from violent homes.
Khun Piangta took it upon herself to motivate these children for school and get away from the terrible environment they knew. After two years, they moved into a larger house in Jomtien, where they began to host a few of these street children and where they also got them into the schools. In 1999 it had grown to 15 children and they had to look for a new and larger location.
Today, they have a new location and house over 90 children. Their immediate goal, along with constantly working to raise money for daily operations and to assist with their children’s education. She introduced two young ladies; one that has completed her University education and the other who is currently attending University. Khun Sununta then showed a video which provided more information about them.
Khun Siriporn Chalermyat, now aged 27, entered Baan Jing Jai Foundation at the age of 10. Her family was very poor and the parents could not support her education. Baan Jing Jai provided her housing, food, education, and health care until she earned her Bachelor Degree in Theology. After she graduated from Payap University in 2020, she decided to come back to Pattaya and work at the Foundation to help other children in need.
Khun Runchana Srira, age 19, whose nickname is Piano, entered Baan Jing Jai when she was 3 years old. At that time her mother did not have time to take care of her. The parents worked on a small cargo ship transporting goods on the river and sometimes to the sea. Piano loves music and is enrolled with the Faculty of Music, Payap University, in Chiang Mai. Her plans are to come back and work at Baan Jing Jai in the future.
In conclusion, Khun Sununta mentioned that they continue to face big challenges to keep operating and are almost 100% dependent on voluntary donors/sponsors. MC Ren Lexander noted that for those that may wish to provide a donation, there was a jar available at the table outside the meeting room where Baan Jing Jai staff had some items available for sale. Attendees at the PCEC meeting were willing to help and by the end of the meeting had donated slightly over 57,000 baht to Baan Jing Jai Foundation.
Bryan Williams then followed with his presentation about the Economy. He noted that he was not an “expert” on the economy, just a regular guy that tries to keep up with what is happening. He mentioned that his presentation primarily was to encourage his fellow Expats with similar interest to join a PCEC Special Interest group he wants to organize that will meet to discuss the economy, but also to discuss and exchange information about the stock market.
Bryan highlighted several areas currently impacting on the economic outlook. First, he mentioned the cause of some recent bank failures in the USA, but noted that there were also problems with banks in other countries, citing Credit Suisse as one. He then went on to speak about the impact of inflation citing some examples such as high energy costs in Europe.
Also, he mentioned “de-dollarization” noting that the US Dollar is no longer the highly favored currency for international trade and monetary reserves. He noted that numerous countries are taking steps away from the US Dollar. However, he felt that despite the chaos confronting the world economy, there are still some opportunities. He cited some countries where market stocks have risen despite high inflation, the advent of AI (artificial intelligence), and changes in farming among others.
After the presentations, MC Ren Lexander called on George Wilson to conduct the Open Forum where the audience can ask questions or make comments about expat living in Thailand. To view a video of the presentations, visit the PCEC YouTube Channel: Baan Jing Jai presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVjvrHeUeGc and Bryan’s presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V6hQpWdsz0.
