Once again The Haven and their customers collected enough money to enable the staff of the Baan Jing Jai Foundation to spend 1,000 baht each to buy Christmas presents for the seventy five children currently housed in three houses in Pattaya.
The children are awaiting the completion of their new home that has been designed to accommodate 100 orphaned or homeless children from the almost newborn up to 17 years of age, which is being constructed on the outskirts of the city. Usually The Haven organises a golf competition, called the Santa Scramble that was started by long time supporter of the charity, Roy Thornton, who has sadly passed on, but has been continued by Stephen Beard and The Haven since 2010. Unfortunately this year due to unavoidable circumstances it was not possible to organise this and the Foundation suffered to the tune of 200,000 baht, the sum usually raised in the event with the cash raised going towards the New Home Fund. With over one million baht having been raised in the previous events it was somewhat disappointing that the event could not be held this year.
However, the customers of The Haven responded to the urging of Nong Jim, who is always to be found at the forefront of the annual drive to collect the cash during this period, with the total generous sum topped up by the management and which was sufficient to provide for the presents this year.
Having unwrapped their gifts on Christmas morning, all that was left to do was attend the annual swim party at The Haven. Dive, jump, swim, scream, fill up with ice cream, hot dogs and soft drinks for about two hours until totally sated, then sing a couple of beautiful seasonal songs and carry off a boxed dinner for everyone back to their old home.
Hopefully, with a little more help from around the world, the New Home project will be completed by the time next Christmas rolls around and all the children plus a few more will be housed in a state of the art home.
Details of the group and the project can be found at http://www.baanjingjai.com
