Alternative to gay bar chat.Pattaya street kids report

[thaiguest]

whilst I don't deny that these charities are doing great work... I often wonder about the oft mentioned "slums" of Pattaya...

There are no "slums" in Pattaya... Pattaya is not Calcutta or Soweto, sure it has some run down areas and some places bordering on shanty towns... But its very "News-of-the-world" reporting to call these slums!

Lets face it the shacks that some of the people live in in Pattaya are a hell of a lot better than they would be if they were still in Issan... yes its not perfect for children to be brought up in these places... but they are with loving families and probably better off than most western children in terms of family support and love...

There's a Catch22 element in charities as follows; To function staff are taken on. Now 2 groups are depending on the charity-the beneficiaries and the staff. It should be the ultimate aim of charities to make their service redundant eg in the case of this Pattaya Slum charity setting all the kids up in stable homes should be and no doubt is the ultimate aim. BUT whereas the aim of the founders of the chatity may be to make itself redundant the day for this conclusion can be forever kicked down the road by paid staff. It's a bit like a turkey endlessly postponing Christmas- which I'm sure turkeys would do if they knew the bigger picture.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta did what Jesus asked; she fed the hungry, clothed the naked, comforted the dying but this in itself would never solve the big picture. The macro reality in India is that the country is awash with money that's held by a few families that think nothing of spending 50000 dollars on a daughter's wedding dress. Mother Teresa could never solve the macro problem. This can only be solved at the appropriate level. Likewise in Pattaya and in Thailand in general.

[francois]

After reading some of the above posts I now am convinced to renounce all charitable works of mercy and just use my money for my own hedonistic pleasures. :|

[thaiguest]

No need to renounce ALL charitable works of mercy, just inform yourself and become become selective as to whom you lend support.
Make no mistake that SOME of the money you've given to "charities" have funded hedonistic pleasures as well as free homes, free flights, free cars etc for the many scammers out there.
There's a (foreign) charity director that I know of here in Pattaya cos his charity rents my friend's house for him. There are many houses big and small for rent in Thailand but my friend's house is very "high end" having a beautuful garden, a swimming pool and many rooms filled with beautiful furniture. His tenant didn't haggle over the high rent cos he's not paying it. My friend loves this particular tenant .
The next time you go to Cambodia check out the mansions rented by many of the foreign charities there.

[christianpfc]

whilst I don't deny that these charities are doing great work... I often wonder about the oft mentioned "slums" of Pattaya...

There are no "slums" in Pattaya... Pattaya is not Calcutta or Soweto, sure it has some run down areas and some places bordering on shanty towns... But its very "News-of-the-world" reporting to call these slums!

I have toured Bangkok slums extensively and found most slum* homes there have running water, electricity, spotted some flat screen TV and some have aircon. Nobody there goes to bed hungry! And the garbage that is lying around, they threw it away, do they really need an NGO to tell them not to throw their garbage on the street (I amazes me again and a gain when I witness Thai just letting it fall down or throw it out of bus, train or boat).

*let's call corrugated iron sheds slum, and there are few right angles and construction is haphazard without any plan.

Such housing conditions (corrugated iron sheds, a whole family in one room, shower with cold water from a bucket) are found all over Thailand, it's how the poor live. They could as well hand out food the the poor in Kalasin, but I guess Pattaya is easier to reach and has better hotels.

yes its not perfect for children to be brought up in these places... but they are with loving families and probably better off than most western children in terms of family support and love...

A bit far fetched. I read about alcohol and drug problems, and single mothers.

I'm sure the food is appreciated, but it's not necessary either. It's probably more of a, "hey I didn't ask for it, but if you want to give me free shit, sounds good!".

Agree. Everyone is happy: the NGOs have a job, the poor get free food, and the best is if they don't address the core problem, this can go on for eternity (look at Africa: over 50 years of development aid since most African countries became independent, and nothing has changed!).

Foreign aid is sometimes defined as 'poor people in rich countries sending money to rich people in poor countries.'

[cdnmatt]

(look at Africa: over 50 years of development aid since most African countries became independent, and nothing has changed!).

Loads has changed in Africa over the decades. Still has a long ways to go, but it's getting there. Here's even a recent news article about it:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/26/afric ... barometer/

[ainamor]

I sponsor to kindergarten kids through Pattaya Street Kids and have met one of the organizer personally in the UK. Thinking PSK may be interested in this thread I sent the link and asked what they thought.

I received the following response.

Thanks for the link to the PSK item on the board.

Certainly the usual tourist haunts are not going to take you near any of the slums but I am surprised that some people seems to be in denial that slums do exist in Pattaya. Maybe they should take a look at this link on our тАШChildren needing Sponsors web pages where they can see photos of the homes of some of our students.
http://www.kids-sponsorship.org/slums-w ... live..html

Also although I accept that a comment about money being used for staff was a generalisation of charities PSK does not have any paid staff, everything is done on a voluntary basis. The only costs that are incurred are for the fuel used on the monthly food deliveries and these costs are met by an existing sponsor who donates specifically for that purpose in addition to their normal sponsorship.

As for the comment about food, the families that we give food to each month are referred to us by either social Services or the schools as being in desperate need of support. The needs are reassessed every month when the food is delivered to determine whether the need is still there or needs to be increased.

I do agree that education is the key to these kidsтАЩ future which is why we now have 340 children sponsored through PSK on our scholarship programme and about forty more waiting for sponsors. Some of our former students have gone on to University; many are in colleges and others in full time well paid work. The young street kid тАШPodтАЩ who was the catalyst for this project back in 2000 is now the manager of a large air conditioning company near Bangkok, married with a wife and family, lives in a nice house by a river and is also fluent in English. His education was only in state schools but that was only possible by sponsorship, sponsorship that cost less that an average of ┬г75 (3,800Baht) a year but sponsorship that changed his life. Education is free in Thailand but the family must supply the uniforms, book, shoes, money for meals and transport to and from school and that is what the sponsorship money is used for.

Please feel free to use this response as you see fit.

[lego]

I think it is universally true that there are people who live in slum-like conditions in each and every city. Whether it's an actual slum in the traditional sense or not doesn't really matter. From that point of view, it's laudable that foreigners who feel attached to Pattaya donate money or their time to help people in need there. Saying such people don't exist in Pattaya is laughable.

[colmx]

I guess some of the posts above are aimed at me, so though I better respond...

Slum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum
A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing and squalor.[1] While slums differ in size and other characteristics from country to country, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law enforcement and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty houses to professionally built dwellings that because of poor-quality design or construction have deteriorated into slums

Shack:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shack
A shack is a type of small, often primitive shelter or dwelling.

The people pictured above live in shacks, not slums.... And as ChristianPFC points out - so do a lot of people in Issan

The nearest slum to Pattaya is probably Klong Toey in Bkk...

Again I am not knocking the great work that these charities and NGOs do... I simply dispute the semantics of the use of the alarmist term "slum" when "shack" is a more appropriate term

[lonelywombat]

The link from street kids show photos of places where the kids are living in Pattaya now.
http://www.kids-sponsorship.org/slums-w ... live..html

I have visited places not as good as those illustrated.This pedantic discussion on what is a slum or a shack shocks me.

[christianpfc]

By the definitions posted by colmx, these areas are more shack than slum. But even I wouldn't press for this distinction. And I have seen such (as in the link above by lonelywombat) in Pattaya.

I vaguely remember living areas in Poipet (Cambodian side of Aranyaprathet) looked poorer, but I didn't pay attention to running water and electricity. Have yet to go to living areas of Burmese refugies in Thai border areas to Burma.