We made our way up to the Lisu Village which was housed behind the Chiang Dao Day Care. We had to drive up a dirt road up a mountain, & it was a 15 to 20 minutes drive. The village was pretty quiet, we hardly saw anyone around.

When we arrived, the teacher was waiting for us outside. There was a compound just upon entering the gate, with a playground. Here the school was much smaller. Upon entering the classroom, again the children were all taking their afternoon nap, & all were fast asleep.

The uniform here was pink, while the one at the Chiang Dao Day Care was blue. These were the children of the Lisu Hill-tribe. I have to admit the names of the different tribes were all lost to me. The only Hill-tribe that stood out to me was the Karen tribe, as they were also known as the Long-Necked tribe, due to the girls & women wearing rings round their necks, adding more & more & elongating the neck as they grow older.

As I was not aware of this school, we had not prepared any goodies for the children. I asked the teacher if there was anyway we could do something for them, where she suggested we might like to give them a treat. I asked her what they liked, where she said, ‘Ice-creams.’

I asked her how much an ice-cream cost, where she said THB10. She told me the children would get very excited if they know they were to get an ice-cream treat. I could see how & why it was such a rarity for them. As the daily budget per meal per child was THB10, then an additional THB10 spent on an ice-cream would be a luxury indeed.

There were 25 children there, & an ice-cream each would come to THB250. She told me that dessert was also OK with the children. I asked her if it was possible for me to give the money to her, while she made the arrangements. She said it was OK, so I gave her some money. She asked me how I would like it spent, so I told her, ‘Whatever the children like, & whichever is convenient to you.’ I requested for a simple receipt of the money, which she wrote for me on an A-4 paper.

There was a tranquility found in the school & surroundings which is missing in the hustle & bustle of the big cities which most of us are so used to. Once many years back when I was in Mt Gambier, one of the smallest towns in Australia (if not the smallest), a friend living there had told me, ‘Here in the country, we are spiritually rich.’

As it was my first time to this school, I was not prepared. But after seeing the conditions, & understanding the situation of the children, I guess when we can prepare ourselves better when we come again. I have to confess again that while I am aware there are many hill-tribes around, what I have seen is what the usual tourist sees – a guided tour of a mock-up village. The next round, we will come back to get a better understanding of how these folks live.

On Wednesday morning, I made my way to the Rejoice office. We started out around 11am for the Day Care in Chiang Dao, & arrived there around 1pm. This is my 3rd visit to the Day Care.

When we arrived, the children had all had their lunch, & were taking their routine afternoon nap. Not all were asleep though, but as was the habit, they laid quietly on their mattresses, so as not to disturb the others.

On Monday, with a friend’s help, we had gone shopping & had bought some foodstuff for the children. We bought 2 bags of 25kg rice, 4 trays of eggs, Milo & condensed milk, packeted chocolate flavoured soy-milk, tins of biscuits along with some light snacks & sweets.

We unloaded the goodies we had bought. SDL Inc (Thailand) has kindly sponsored these goodies, & I had offered to go help buy them.

There were 3 rooms, housing 5 year-olds, 4 & 3 year-olds, and 2 & 1 year-plus children respectively. There was a teacher for each room, & the total headcount for the children amounted to 60.

The entrance to the Day Care was from the 5 year-olds’ room. Upon entering the  room, I could see that most of the faces were new. I could only remember 2 who had been there since last November when I visited.

The teacher pointed to the mattresses that the children were lying on, which were actually just a simple affair sewed together. They were very thin & worn, & I could not even see any cotton filling. The teachers requested if we could help provide the children with some new ones. As it was not easy for us to buy & lug them over, I asked Steve if it could be arranged that Rejoice does the shopping & delivery, while we will send the funds to pay for it. Steve was agreeable to that, & we will follow up with that.

I have posted pictures of some of the children in the Gallery. Some of the children were very shabbily dressed, & the blue t-shirts that some are dressed in are actually some kind of uniform provided by the Day Care. They had been informed of our visit some time back, & the parents have let their children come to the Day Care that day with their ‘Sunday best’.

I had a long chat with the teachers this time, & realized more about the children at the Day Care. They were from various ethnic groups. There were Thai children, children from the minority ethnic groups, or hill-tribes, children of foreign workers & also some refugee children.

The teachers explained that there were pre-school child care centers for the Thais, but for the poorer ones, they would have no choice but to send their children to this Day Care, which they termed ‘International Day Care Center’.

The hill-tribes had been living in Chiang Mai for a long time, but they have no legal status. Thus they are not entitled many benefits which a Thai has.

The 3rd group of children are the children of foreign workers. Their parents were in Chiang Mai to work on the farms as hired helps, so these labourers bring their children with them. I was shocked to hear that these folks did not have a roof over their heads, they lived on the farms where they worked. I could not imagine how it would be like, as it was the rainy season from April to October in Thailand each year.

When the work or harvest was done, they would look for other work elsewhere, or return to their own countries, bringing their children with them. During the daytime, when they were working on the fields, they would leave their children at the Day Care, for a few simple reasons. They needed someone to help take care of their children when they worked, they needed the free lunch that was provided for them, & they also hoped that the children would be given some simple education.

For the refugee children, I have written about them earlier, so I will not touch on them again.

The teachers told me that in the Day Care, lunch for the children was provided by the local authorities. Each child was given a 10 Baht allocation per meal, roughly amounting to USD 0.33. They told me that the 50kg of rice we bought would last the 60 children a month, supplemented by noodles which the teachers would make themselves.

It sounded a bit complex as to how we could help further, as the dissimilar backgrounds of the children created different problems. It also took some time for us to understand each other as things were complicated by the teachers’ lack of command of English, & my limited understanding of the Thai language.

The teachers suggested we help those who were staying in the village, where the children would be going to primary school permanently, & then assist in other issues as & when there was a need. That made sense to me.

So I asked the teachers if there were any ways we could help with those children who are from very poor families, & they suggested we help supply the educational materials. The 5 year-olds would be entering primary school next year, & those needy ones would need help.

I asked them what the children would need, & they listed school bags, shoes, exercise books, sports attire & so forth. I requested them to list down the number of needy children, & they listed down 7 names.

They explained to me that the present government now provides lunch in the primary schools for the children with no legal status as well. In the past, they were not given the lunch allocation. They would be allowed to study in the primary schools for free till the age of 15, where they would then have to leave.

Then they asked me if we were interested in helping those who were already in school, but were in need of help. I asked them how many children there were, & they listed 3. They offered to take me to the primary school which was nearby, to take a look at these children. I was concerned it would disrupt their studies, so I did not go. I left the money with the teachers, requesting that they let the guardians of these children sign a receipt, to be left with Rejoice. I can pick it up when I visit again.

They then asked me if I was interested to visit another Day Care, this time housing hill-tribe children, & told me these are from really poor families. Confirming that it was nearby, I was keen to go. One of the teachers very kindly offered to come along to show us the way. So we set off in my friend’s pickup.

When we returned to the Day Care later, most of the children were waking up, so we asked if we could distribute to them the snacks that we had bought. The children quickly formed into queues, & we gave out the snacks to them. It was great to see how happy & excited their faces were. That’s probably why there’s the saying, ‘Giving is happier than receiving’?

I made a trip to Rejoice again on 27 July 2010. This time, a friend living in Bangkok, Winston, was with me on the trip. We had been concerned about Rejoice’s lack of financial support, & had been discussing how we could help Rejoice seek financial aid. Winston had then made a written proposal to his management, SDL PLC (UK), & his management had then generously & promptly made a generous donation to Rejoice.

I picked Winston up from the Chiang Mai Airport, & we made our way to Rejoice. We were to go with Steve & his staff to the Chiang Dao mobile clinic. The Rejoice staff had been told that a generous donation had been made to the charity, & they had been very excited.

The journey was a 2-hour drive. The mobile clinic was a house, which was located at the foot of a very beautiful mountain, surrounded by lush & green fields. You can see the picture of the mountain above.

The folks were there waiting for us. I was told there were some new members. There were adults & children alike there. The Rejoice staff unloaded the milk powders & medical supplies, which were neatly stacked in trays. Then they sat down at a table outside the house, & the people took it in turns to consult about their medical problems.

Records of their complaints were kept, so were records of the medication dispensed. Not all patients were HIV infected. Milk powders & multi-vits were dispensed to the children who needed them.

Steve told us that due to lack of funding, many children who were on the milk powder programs had been dropped, as Rejoice could not provide them with the milk powders. The mothers had no choice, but to go back to breast feeding. That meant the children would be re-infected by HIV again.  It was very sad.

The weekly visit to this Chiang Dao mobile clinic was only one of the routes Rejoice served. Many of these villagers could not afford the medical care, nor make the 2 hour journey to Chiang Mai to seek medical attention. The weekly Rejoice visit was a great relief to them.

While the Rejoice staff went about their job, I took a walk with another Thai friend of mine to look at the mountain, & to take some photographs. It was breathtakingly beautiful. A pickup with some tourists drove pass, headed for the mountain, & my friend asked me, ‘Is there some nice place inside there to visit?’ I too would wish to know. Perhaps one day I will find out.

We left the mobile clinic, & made our way back to the Rejoice office. In the car, Winston & Steve had a long discussion, about how records could be kept & provided, to ensure that funds were well utilized.

That evening, we had a dinner with some patients who lived in or around the town Hang Dong. Many were teenagers, who had benefited from Rejoice’s help when they were mere infants. Now some were even in the universities.

Rejoice does not just provide help for AIDS affected & infected patients. They also provide aid to refugees, child care centers for needy folks, & education support for the underprivileged. Many programs had been dropped the past few years, due to lack of funding. But now, with the generous sponsorship made by SDL PLC UK, Rejoice is now able to slowly reach out to more underprivileged people. It is very encouraging indeed that Rejoice has found another good sponsor.

Here I would also like to thank my friends & clients who had been making contributions to enable Rejoice to go on during the hard times. Through the generosity & efforts of the people helping, many underprivileged folks have found hope.

Bangkok Saigon Cycle Challenge –  a 1,000km Charity fund raising mountain bike ride for deprived children in Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam.

I am reproducing the email to Steve Hallam, Director of Rejoice, for a fund raising project benefiting Rejoice here. If interested, please follow the link below :

Dear Steve,

After an abortive effort last year when we failed to sign up the minimum number of participants to make it financially viable, and a limp effort in 2008 where 2 of the 3 participants failed to actually raise any donations at all, we are giving the Bangkok Saigon Cycle Challenge one final go this year in November.

This will be the 10th and last edition in its present format. Dates: 06 to 21 November 2010.

This year bookings have started strongly and we have already surpassed our minimum number to guarantee that the event will take place. There are more people promising to sign up shortly and I expect to be half way to the full compliment of 22 by the end of this month.

You can help me by:

1. Promoting the event through your websites and other marketing activities

2. Advising me and helping me coordinate the donation collections, including Gift Aid and similar tax value added systems.

Attached is a poster that can be printed and posted in visible locations which you think might attract potential participants. Very often foreigners who visit you here will have friends in their own countries who may be good candidates.

All the best,

CHRIS

I would like to thank everybody who has taken the time to read the Voice articles, especially those who have made contributions to Rejoice Charity. Many have written & commented kindly on the articles. Your interest in Rejoice is much appreciated.

The purpose of the Voice articles is to create awareness of Rejoice’s work, from my point of view as contributor/visitor to this charity. I would also like to thank my friends & clients who are donating generously to Rejoice.

I am glad I made the visit to Rejoice in June 2009, where I met up with Steve for the first time. Steve had told me then he was on the verge of closing down the charity, due to lack of funding. We hope that due to the enhanced awareness, more people will step forward & lend financial support to this selfless work done by Steve & his staff, so the work can be continued.

There are also people who have written in & informed me that the Blog link is broken. I have forwarded the messages to Arthur, who will duly look into it. He is looking into setting up a Photo Gallery for the Rejoice site. We hope to share the photos of our Rejoice trips with anybody interested.

We hope to keep the Rejoice site up-to-date & alive, with photos & stories of the latest events. Thank you again to all Rejoice well-wishers, & may you have a great year 2010 as well.

During my 2nd visit to Rejoice, I had the opportunity to ask Steve more about the children at the daycare. He told me that the building for the daycare was provided by some monks, & the children were allowed to remain there till they reach their 6th birthday. After that, the child would have to leave.

Even while being of age to attend school, but being refugees, these children do not have legal status, so they might not be able to gain admission into a school. Some schools might accept them on humanitarian grounds, but then the parents might not be able to provide the basic essentials like transportation fees, school uniforms & textbooks.

A friend living in Thailand told me that many parents send their children to school becos of the free lunch provided. After lunch, the teachers would be busy gathering up the children, to ensure they stay on for the afternoon session, instead of running home. I read an article in a paper once regarding a similar issue that said, ‘They send their children to school to eat.’

Most of these refugees work in the construction sectors. There would be times that due to economic factors, there would be a lull in the building industry, so their already meager income would be further affected.

When we visited a refugee site during our visit in Chiang Mai, our driver told us that the parents of these children would certainly like to send their children to school, to receive a formal education.

Most schools upcountry are badly in need of funding themselves. A friend living in Thailand who has visited some of these schools told me that some of the schools do not even have a canteen, so there is no proper place for the children to have their lunch. They would be squatting or sitting all around outside the school compound under the hot sun while eating, & when it comes the rainy season, it would be even worse, the grounds would be muddy.

Steve told me he has been working on the refugee problem for a long time. When we visited the mobile clinic in the Fang Province, while his staff attended to the sick & needy, he told me that these were humble & hardworking people. I could see that all they probably wished for was 3 meals for their family members, & the luxury of being able to send their children to school.

Being refugees without legal status, they are not entitled to medical benefits. On top of that, living in far-flung places, without their own means of transport, I can see that Rejoice’s mobile clinic coming to them every week must be a great relief to them.

When Steve asked me what impacted me the most during my first visit, I had said it was the daycare & the HIV infected children. The reason why the daycare impressed me was becos these were refugee children.

The parents of these children have to work very hard to eke out a living, living from hand to mouth. Driven out from their homes & living in a foreign land, & having to cope with a new language was not an easy task. On top of that, they have to accept employment that paid them very much lower than what a native Thai would command.

Steve told me there were many more such schools all around Chiang Mai, & in the surrounding hill areas, but there was only so much that Rejoice could do to help, as Rejoice was solely dependent on donors, & funds were very low.

Steve said something that impressed me deeply, he said the future for these children was very bleak. Being refugees living in a foreign land, formal education was denied them. Even though if the school accepted them, there would be no formal records of their education, which simply means they have no report cards, & would not be able to further their education.

A friend also told me that from the schools upnorth that he has visited, even if the schools were to accept these refugee children, they were not qualified for any lunch indent officially. Based on humanitarian grounds, the ration would be shared out among all the children, & each child would only get a bit of food. Many parents sent their children to school just becos the schools provide lunch for the children, & they themselves could not afford to feed them.

On top of the above problems, even if the school were to accept them, the parents would be too poor to provide uniforms, school bags & books for their children. Even the cost of transportation was beyond some of them.

Steve told me he would like to do more, but he does not have the funds. He is hoping that some long term sponsorships would come along, so he can do more for these underprivileged children, & do better planning.

When we visited the daycare, we could see some of the children are carefree, & happy in their environment. The daycare was probably their haven, while their parents are busy at work. They probably are too young to understand the plight of their parents, which is just as well.

There is only so much one can do, but we hope to be able to assist Rejoice in providing some form of childhood to these unfortunate children. During our trip, we also visited a site of some refugees’ homes. A simple affair of wood & bamboo ridged to form a shelter was home for them. The adults were out, busy trying to make a living, & the children were playing by themselves out in the open. We bought some snacks for them, & they were happily eating them, & sharing them with each other.

During my earlier trips to Chiang Mai, while going for the bamboo raft tour, I had also seen children selling handicraft in the streams. Usually shirtless, they would be gasping in the waters, which was up to their shoulder or chins, holding the souvenirs in their hands, & trying to persuade the tourists seated on the bamboo rafts to buy something. I didn’t see them around any more this time, but the sight would surely melt the heart of anyone who has seen it.

A happy memory, or some act of kindness shown a child might carry them a long way … These forgotten people need our help. Anyone wishing to help in any way is welcome to write to Steve at Rejoice.

After my first trip to Rejoice, I spoke to my friends & clients about it, & showed them the photos I had taken. One of them, Cedric, who was working in the UK then, offered to do a fund-raising for Rejoice.

It was a few months later, when he told me he had raised quite a substantial sum of money, which he duly remitted to Rejoice. During the end of year 2009, Cedric had a long period of annual leave, so I invited him to visit Rejoice with me.

It was his first trip to Chiang Mai,  & he told me later that he did not feel like going home; he too was captivated by the city’s old world charm, with its friendly people & relaxed atmosphere. I had brought 2 other friends with me, & one of them, Arthur, ran an IT company. I told him that Steve was looking for someone to help him maintain & update the Rejoice website, & Arthur volunteered to take over the hosting & maintenance of it.

We were in Chiang Mai for 5 days. As I had been there several times in the past, I recommended some activities for our sight-seeing. Elephant riding & bamboo rafting, followed by a visit to the orchid garden would take up a whole day. The orchids in Chiang Mai are really beautiful.

The night bazaar in Chiang Mai is a must-see. Besides all sorts of merchandise, the orderliness & cleanliness of the streets are amazing. I have seen many night markets, & usually the sight of plastic bags & litter scattered all over was apalling. Chiang Mai also has a Walking Market, which is only opened on weekends. I discovered that the Night Bazaar seemed to be more catered to tourists, while the Walking Market was more for the Thais.

Then the next day we went to Tiger Kingdom, & took photos with the baby & grown-up tigers. The afternoon was followed by an ATV ride.

However, as fate would have it, due to an accident on the ATV ride, Arthur & my friend did not get to visit Rejoice at all, so I had to introduce Arthur to Steve by email, & subsequently Arthur worked to update the Rejoice website after we came home.

Prior to our visit, I had asked Steve what the children at the daycare would require, & he told me we could buy some notebooks, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, water colors, toys & so forth …

So, we went shopping a day before our visit to the school. Seeing some jackets, we decided to buy a jacket each for each child, as Chiang Mai could be chilly in the evenings during the cold season at the end of the year. However, the store did not have enough colors for the same jackets, so we ended up buying some assortment of 4 different colors.

I had also requested another friend living in Thailand, Winston to help arrange some ice-creams. He told me they would definitely be a hit, & true enough, when I asked Steve about it later, he told me the children had probably never eaten ice-cream. Sometimes they would be given some locally made ice-creams, but many children ended up with diarrhea. The boss of the ice-cream company very kindly sponsored the ice-creams, after Winston told him it was for charity purposes.

Steve had kindly rearranged his itinerary, so we could spend more time at the daycare in Chiang Dao. Usually the school circuit was on Tuesdays, but he had rearranged it on Wednesday. As there were 5 of us, & as the Rejoice car would not be able to take so many of us, we hired a mini-van.

When we arrived at the school compound, I was surprised to find the children were all seated outside, waiting for us. Some girls were dressed in Thai traditional costumes, & the teachers invited us to sit down behind a table, & the girls started dancing to the music played.

After that, we went into the daycare. We were taken round the daycare, which housed 3, 4 & 5-year olds. Then the children took turns having their lunch, a simple soup & noodles affair.

We then offloaded the things we had bought, & asked the teacher if it was OK if we gave out the jackets to the children, so she had them queue up. I wanted to see their reaction to the colors, so we took out all 4 colors, & asked the children to choose the color they want. We were all tickled when nearly all the children selected the sky blue ones. The Rejoice driver, Gee, commented, ‘This color sells well.’

The ice-creams were given out at the same time. I had ordered extra, so all the visitors got one each as well. We left the rest of the stuff we had bought with the teacher.

I had invited 2 Canadian girls we had met on our elephant safari tour 2 days back with us. They told me they enjoyed themselves, took a lot of photos with the children, & told me it was a very meaningful day for them.

Many visitors to Chiang Mai usually stay for quite some time. It would make the children’s day if you could make a contribution to their welfare.

Donations could easily be transferred or banked in to Rejoice’s account, with a phone call or email to inform Steve. If anyone is interested in visiting with Steve to the mobile clinics, or to the school, arrangements could easily be made with Steve. It would definitely be a day well spent, & you can help these underprivileged folks & children at the same time. Rejoice welcomes all donations or long-term sponsorships.

I first got to know of Rejoice Charity in 2003, when I read about it in an article in the Malaysian Star Paper. The paper ran the article over 2 weeks, giving it front-page coverage.

Being a Singaporean, I had taken many things in life for granted. The first time I was in Thailand was in 1987. I had traveled to some areas outside Bangkok, & saw people living in poverty for the first time. There were people living in slums, shabbily dressed children, & homeless old folks lying around. That first trip made a great impression on me.

I was working in Malaysia then, & was on the verge of leaving the country. I had been conducting a small meditation class, collecting a small fee for it, & before leaving the country, I sent the bulk of the collection to Rejoice.

When I came back to Singapore, I started a meditation class here as well, & spoke to my clients, collecting donations from those who were willing to help. However, it was only 5 years later, in June 2009 that I made my first visit to Rejoice.

I met up with Steve at the Rejoice HQ in Chiang Mai for the first time. I had been to Chiang Mai several times in the past, & the city with its old world charm & friendly people had made a favorable impression on me.

Steve told me he would be taking me to a school in Chiang Dao. It was almost a 2 hour trip, & in the car, we chatted.

Steve explained to me that he used to be a nurse back in the UK. He had come to Thailand to start Rejoice with his cousin, Gareth, to provide aid to HIV/Aids infected & affected people. During a champagne holiday spent in India, they were looking down onto the streets below while sipping champagne on the balcony of their room, & the sight of children scavenging for food in the garbage dumps had changed their lives forever.

They went back to the UK, liquidated all their assets, & made a commitment to help the underprivileged. The result was Rejoice Charity. The story can be found in the History of Rejoice.

Daily, he would go out with his helpers, running a mobile clinic, to provide medical aid, medication & infant milk formulas to the needy. Everyday a different route was planned. However, due to lack of sponsorship & funding, he had closed down the mobile clinic routes for children in the surrounding areas. Funding was almost coming to a halt, so he was on the verge of closing down the charity.

When we arrived at the school, I saw that it was a day care center for young children. There were perhaps some 50-60 children there. Some were very shabbily dressed. Some monks had provided the building for housing these children, but they needed food, education materials, & other things like toys, which most of us living in other parts of the world would have just taken for granted.

While education in Thailand was free, the children still needed uniforms, school bags, study materials & so forth. A lot of parents simply could not afford to provide their children with all these.

I could see it was certainly no easy task providing lunch for 60 children in the day care everyday. Rejoice helps by contributing some biscuits, snacks, education materials & toys.

We lingered at the school for a while, then Steve brought me to the province Fang, where some volunteers had offered the use of their home as a mobile clinic. There the Rejoice helpers attended to the HIV/Aids infected people, & kept medical records.

There were some HIV infected children at the mobile clinic. Steve told me that if a child who was born HIV positive does not take his mother’s breast milk, his/her own immune system would build up after 3 years, & the child would be HIV free. However, infant formulas are expensive, & if the supply of infant formulas were to stop, the mother would have no choice, but to breastfeed the child.

After the trip, which lasted a whole day becos the journey was pretty far, Steve asked me what impressed me the most. I told him it was the daycare, & the children in need of infant formulas. The sight of these children with literally no childhood was really moving.

Rejoice is working very hard to help the unfortunate, especially the children, but it relies heavily on donors’ generosity to be able to continue to help these people. Steve told me that funding is very low now, & he is finding it hard to continue his work.

I had taken some photographs, & told him that while I could not be sure of the results, I would certainly help to spread the word round. After I arrived home, I showed the photos to my clients & friends, requesting them if they could to help Rejoice.

I hope many more people will step forward to help Rejoice. Sponsorships would be welcome, & so are individual donations. To many of us, $50 might just buy a meal in a restaurant, but it would help many unfortunate children.

Steve does not draw any salary from Rejoice, but lives on a pension from the UK. As he said, the same commitment he gave might not be expected of everyone, but if everybody were to set aside something to help the unprivileged, he would be able to continue his mission of love.