Esan is Thailand’s most impoverished region. It has a population of 21 million people. Despite its poverty Esan receives relatively little attention from aid, development or charitable organisations.
One reason that we take displaced children from fractured families is because we are able to care for them over a period of years. Hence we have time to operate a protracted plan of development designed for each child.
Beng (20). One of our graduates.
To this end our teenage boys and girls do all the work at the homes including cooking the meals, carrying out our integrated chicken and fish farming projects, cultivating the crops (especially the yearly rice crop). The kids wash their own clothes, help buy all of the food at the market and assist in carrying out building construction projects etc. This is because we proactively work to develop a good level of work-ethic within our kids. We firmly believe that quality and effective young leaders must know how to work hard and to do so with due commitment and accountability. The work is doing particularly well and growing. Our young people now run a lot of the work and are being introduced on to our indigenous board of control.
Narm and Dan both aged 17 years.
ESTHER HOUSE: Twenty girls live at the home studying at high school. Thirteen girls are either studying at university level or have graduated already.
HOME OF A NEW DAWN: Eighteen boys live at the home and study at high school. Six boys are studying at university level with another five having now graduated. One boys has graduated at Masters level while another is at Ph.D level. Others are at trade training school and seven are working.
A highlight each year is our New Year’s camp when our big kids aged 20 – 30 years get together with our live-in kids for a blowout end of year camp. A number of our older ones are studying at university or have already graduated. Even at their age we continue to support them as necessary until they have graduated. Then at that point we teach them to begin to financially support the younger ones who are still studying at tertiary level. That is what empowering is all about.
Now in 2011 we have several of our young people all aged in their 20′s who have come back to help run the homes. They carry out all of the day-to-day duties and are being mentored as leaders at the same time. Also there are others who are studying so that they may have the opportunity to lead other homes or help in organisations both within Thailand and overseas. This is what Empower Asia is all about, getting our young people to take over our work.
At the same time we have other kids here who have offered to move 1500 kilometres south to work amongst young people in our proposed new homes in Songkhla. This is empowerment. See our article on Southern Thailand.
Above: Some of our big kids. Most are now studying at tertiary level.
If you would like to read stories of some of our kids’ changed lives then go to http://empower.asia/stories/
When the Somerville’s lived in Thailand full-time they were recognised as social workers and held corresponding visas to this effect. The work is registered under the Royal Thai Government.
