New Trajectory of Self Sustainability
During 2011 we moved the children that we support in Chiang Mai, Thailand to a safe home and started a self-sustainable child development program for them.
The Project
In 2010, Bobf was introduced to a children’s home in Northern Thailand that was in very poor shape. The children in the home ate only rice, did not go to school regularly, and were living in very muddy and dirty conditions.
The environment was damp with very little protection from rain and mosquitos. Sickness was spreading around the home which became dangerous since the children had very little medical care.
Bobf found a corporate partner and coordinated a fundraiser in both Asia and in the US to raise money for the home. The efforts paid off and Bobf raised $10,000 from 8 countries in South East Asia and $10,000 from the US. The funding significantly changed the trajectory of 35 young lives. The donation brought the children’s lives out of crisis mode, provided them important basic care and helped give them a quality stable rented home. We are now raising money for land to build them a permanent home.
Security Savings
Part of the money raised last July was used for the items reported below. Per Band of Brothers direction, the remainder is held in a bank account as savings and is budgeted and distributed on a monthly basis to ensure food will not run out and basic care can be provided for the children over the next 12 months.
• Regular Healthy Food: The first thing that was provided from your donations were 3 meals a day, which had protein, rice and vegetables. Last year the children mostly ate only rice and were undernourished.
• New Safe Home: The children moved from a dark, unsafe, unclean home, to the home you will see today. Your support gave the caregivers their first savings ever. This allowed them to secure a $166 dollar a month lease for the home campus and farmland. The landlord was told other People from all over the region were helping and decided to give the children a very low lease to help be part of the team to help these children.
• New Bathrooms and Shower: The new home has 6 enclosed bathrooms and 6 inside showers. The girls and boys rooms are inside concrete structures away from insects and out of the weather. The previous home was not waterproofed and was infested with bugs and mosquitos.
• Attracting Better Quality Caregivers: The operating managers of the home were able to attract more educated caregivers to work in the home because of its better conditions. This will help with the children’s education.
• Caregivers and Children Take Pride: The caregivers and children together took pride in working as a team with Networks 21. These efforts provided new equipment like beds, pillows, mats, Mosquito nets, shoe racks, and shelves to help organize the home and keep it as a good healthy place to live.
• Study Area: The children now have a study area and storage for schoolwork and new school supplies.
• New Transportation: The home now owns a truck that can fit all of the children for transportation to school, to help with farming and to get supplies, or to transport children for medical care.
• Music Equipment: Our success with donations triggered other smaller organizations to contribute school supplies additional musical equipment to home.
• Living Space for Children: The new home gives children their own space to sleep in and space for their own things. This allows the caretakers to teach children to be organized and disciplined when taking care of themselves, skills they will use later in life.
• Growing Vegetables: The children are growing vegetables that will be an important part of their diet for most of the year.
• Growing and Selling Rice: The donations paid for planting a season of premium rice. The premium rice was sold, and the proceeds were used to pay the cost of the rented rice land, for low quality rice for the entire year for the children to eat, and for the rice seed for the next season’s planting. Extra profit paid to plant corn and which will be harvested shortly.
• Fresh Water Collector: Last year the kids were forced to drink dirty dangerous water. Now they have water tank to capture fresh water instead of using river water and city water which contain dangerous bacteria. The kids helped plan and put together water collection system.
The Best News
Your donations have helped the kids so much, that all children are going to school now. They all received the required school uniforms and now are attending school. Last year some of the children were left behind because of limited school uniforms and lack of funds for school fees and lunches.
Founder of BandofBrothersFoundation.org and IternetOnlineMarketing.com
