The YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center has stepped in to provide advice on long-term employment and planning options to an infirm family of five that has been begging through the media for nearly four months.
YWCA Chairwoman Praichit Jetpai and club members called on Thongsuk Narinthorn and her family at their Nongket Yai home June 7. Vikrom Malhotra, manager of Massic Travel Co., presented them with 1,400 baht for a month’s rent, but YWCA officials offered perhaps the more-valuable assistance in advice to get the family back on own feet, instead of relying on charitable handouts.
(L to R) Chalan Sakolyuth and Waeth Narinthorn receive help from local YWCA Chairwoman Praichit Jetpai and friend Sunthorn Photcha.
Thongsuk, suffering from arthritis, has appealed for donations since February for herself, her 80-year-old father, Shalan, 76-year-old mother Waeth Narinthorn, and sisters Nuaree Sakolyuth, 45, and Oradee Sakolyuth, 25. Despite numerous appeals to the media, only a few thousand baht has been given in two months.
Shalan is paralyzed from the waist down and suffers from kidney disease. Waeth is a stroke victim, Nuaree has lung cancer, and Oradee has cystic fibrosis. If they can work at all, they earn money picking up trash to recycle, selling second-hand goods or in a low-paying waitress job.
The family was evicted from their home in March, but an unnamed landowner near Nongket Yai came to their aid, offering land to rent at 15,000 baht. The family says they still need 45,000 baht to build a new house.
Praichit said she will send Oradee to Pattaya Massage School to learn a trade and will cover her training expenses for a month. The association will also employ her for a month as a maid or gardener. The YWCA will also plant seeds and vegetables for the family to grow its own food and coordinate with area hospitals on their health care.
Thongsuk said she appreciated all the public assistance, but saying she was too ill to even sell lottery tickets, which she told the media in February she would try to do to earn money. She said the family would consider the YWCA’s offer to send Oradee to school, but reiterated she still needed nearly 50,000 baht for her house.
