Go Pai - and other slums

[bao-bao]

Not wanting to add more to the "slum kids" topic that has been lightly addressed in the "How much to tip in Pattaya" thread I'm starting a new one here. Perhaps it will garner a bit more attention to a cause that has become quite meaningful to me: the Pattaya Street Kids Support Project. I was pleased to read about some forum members who have also gotten involved. Good on you!

IтАЩve made a number of visits to different тАЬslumтАЭ areas over the past few years; sometimes to visit the home of a sponsored child, sometimes to help distribute food packages to families, sometimes just to be reminded how fortunate I am. ItтАЩs difficult not to be humbled when youтАЩre among these people тАУ impoverished is the brightest spin I could put on it тАУ and yet they are clean, polite and friendly with no hint of that selfish entitlement thatтАЩs so rampant here in the US.

The homes are simple, most without the amenities we would have, even if in a campground. As an example, one of my students lives in a small dwelling like this first photo, with one electrical outlet inside and the only running water OUTside, and that isnтАЩt drinkable water. Water stands on either side of their home during the rainy season, home to innumerable mosquitoes who undoubtedly dine more frequently than the people in the homes they buzz around.

Nobody with any heart at all could see kids in this environment and not be effected by it. Go тАУ I heartily recommend it тАУ but be prepared to be overwhelmed.

The PSKSP needs sponsors for kids from elementary school through high school.
http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/ ... nsors.html (http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/childrenneedingsponsors.html)

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-GoPai-1.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-GoPai-2.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-GoPai-3.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-GoPai-6.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-GoPai-4.jpg

We have not yet been sucessful in convincing most Thai paople of the universally accepted Western acknowleged truth that wealth is the only source of happiness.

[DCbob]

I sponsored one this morning before breakfast, Washington, DC time.
Will be in Thailand in November and will probably see the sponsored boy.
First time it was mentioned, I went to the site and they were all sponsored. A couple of days later there were more. I know from your pictures that there will be more and more and .....
I also urge people to have a heart because it cost me only $125.00 US for one year for a 5th grade student. Some are less, some might be more, but not that much.

and sometimes no children on their website for sponsorship.

As I mentioned on the other thread, the boy that I sponsored was not listed on their site--there was just one girl on there at the time. He was already a part of the program given the date of his picture. These kids aren't waiting to start school until you send in the check, really.

It should go without saying, though, that for every kid that is sponsored that they can accept another applicant. That's the key thing--if existing kids don't get picked up then they have to stop accepting new students at some point.

The subject of local charities always gets a mixed reception here, probably for very good reason - the charities are as mixed as the forum members (some good, some bad, some indifferent). You support them (at least verbally) and you are as liable to be condemned as an idiot and a sucker as you are hailed as a saviour and benefactor; you say anything against them and you become either a realist and cynic or, at best, a miser.

It would be unfair for me to single out the PSKSP any more than any other charity (and there is no shortage of Pattaya charities), so I will limit my comments specifically on the PSKSP to saying that its aims are laudable and comment on the "slum" which is made so much of.

When I first came to Thailand I lived in Soi Kophai - not in the "slum", but in a very pleasant farang village nearby, so I do know the area reasonably well. The term "slum" was first applied to it by one of the many charities (not PSKSP) set up to support those living there in an attempt to cash in on the rising fame/notoriety of Klong Toey slum. The organisers, at least in private, made no secret of this although there is really little similarity between the two. In reality the accomodation is on a par with that found in virtually any labourers' camp and in some Issan villages: no better and no worse. Whether I would like to live there or not is irrelevant (although I have lived in worse) as I am simply making a comparison.

The primary difference between the Klong Toey site and the labourers' camps is not that it is any more permanent (some labourers' camps have been in the same location for decades) but that the population is different. Firstly, there are usually few children in the labourers' camps - most are in their home village being cared for by aunts, grandparents or other relatives in return for money being sent home every month; in Soi Kophai, on the other hand, there are an abnormally high number of children, the vast majority of whom are fed, clothed and schooled by a number of different charities. Secondly, those adults living in the labourers' camps work as labourers, paid by the working day depending on their sex and skill and, often, the weather; few of those living in the Soi Kophai site are paid, as such, at all - most work as "re-cyclers", collecting and sorting rubbish and scrap that has (mostly) been thrown out; others sell brooms and baskets and others fall into the "beg, borrow and steal" category.

Does any of that make any of the children any less worthy of an education? No, no more than it does their peers, but it does put the homes, the amenities and some of those living there into perspective.

My own views of Pattaya charites will be forever clouded by my experience with one of the best known and best supported ones. During a visit I had the opportunity to compare the staff accomodation with that of the children. Staff: a hostel/hotel with facilities equivalent to a good hotel, private aircon rooms etc, or rented private houses. Children: dormitories out of the 1950s with fans and furniture to match. Later, when in a friend's furniture factory/shop, I was present when a group of the dregs of Khao San Road came in to buy some furniture for their rented house; on learning that they were volunteers with the charity she offered them some "seconds", only to be told "Don't worry, XXXX is paying and we can choose anything we want". Later my friend offered to take on some of the handicapped students, to accomodate them and teach them furniture making (mutually beneficial, not altruistic) only to be dismissed out of hand (I was there) with the comment that "we are very selective with our students as we only take the very best, to maintain our reputaion, so we would not have anyone who could only do that type of work".

Some of the local charities are excellent and some even get my support; some are not.

Some of the local charities are excellent and some even get my support; some are not.

Most charities in the States are not funded by volunteers that would be willing to sleep in a dormitory, either. I'd say that most pay below-market wages and some others are market-rate. They pay competitive wages under the assumption that they'll be able to attract the very best people as applicants, from both the public and private sectors.

I don't see an issue with some of the things that you saw as a problem. PKSP is run by a church so I doubt they are getting too extravagant with the expenses. They say that all donated funds go to the kids since the 2 staff are paid by the church through other funds.

That last comment seemed to denigrate the man's profession to his face...sounded offensive to me. Furniture and cabinet makers can make big bucks in the West, so I find that a little surprising.

Most charities in the States are not funded by volunteers that would be willing to sleep in a dormitory, either. ... They pay competitive wages under the assumption that they'll be able to attract the very best people as applicants, from both the public and private sectors.

My point was that these are not "the very best people". They are (or more accurately were, since the policy on foreign volunteers has changed under new management) often the dregs of the backpacking world who had run out of money and were more interested in somewhere to stay and a way of extending their visa than any objectives the charity may have had; the Thai volunteers were totally different, and were often neither given nor asked for any allowances. Some foreigners I know who worked there giving specialised tecnical support, for free, for years, were so embarrased by the situation that they avoided naming the organisation itself totally when referring to what they did.


That last comment seemed to denigrate the man's profession to his face...sounded offensive to me. Furniture and cabinet makers can make big bucks in the West, so I find that a little surprising.

If you mean the comment made by one of the senior churchmen in charge to my friend (actually a woman!), it sounded pretty offensive at the time too. Furniture makers are far from highly paid here - particularly those producing rattan/bamboo/water hyacinth furniture, as her factory did. The "big bucks" are made only by the retailers! The most skilled craftsmen are actually those trained in prison, where some really top quality teak and mother-of-pearl inlaid rosewood furniture is produced (not my taste, but superb workmanship); prisons regularly hold furniture sales across Thailand and it can be quite strange to realise that the "salesman" you are haggling with is actually a trustee with a lifetime (or even several lifetimes) of training!

[bao-bao]

PKSP is run by a church so I doubt they are getting too extravagant with the expenses. They say that all donated funds go to the kids since the 2 staff are paid by the church through other funds.
Just to correct one error in mlonker's post - most likely an honest error since I believe he knows differently:

The Pattaya Street Kids Support Project is NOT run by - or a part of any church. Had that been the case I would have found another way to help in Thailand. Not a baht donated to a student via PSKSP is banked, used or kept by Mercy Center.

The woman who serves as PSKSP's liaison is a part of the Mercy Center, but her efforts for the PSKSP are entirely separate from the wonderful work she also does for Mercy. The translators who accompany sponsors on student visits are employees of Mercy Center but do this extra work on top of their Mercy duties. Sam actually helped me with a student visit on a Sunday, his day off.

In light of how good they've been to me I have also donated time and effort to the Mercy Center out of gratitude. The slum visits (to distribute bags of food) and prison visits (to take in sandwiches, fruit, water, aspirin, band-aids and the likes) are an effort of Mercy Center.

Since the PSKSP students are often attending the same schools as some of the Mercy sponsored students there can be some confusion, I know... but the two are separate entities.

After re-reading their website I see that they do make a VERY big point of not being religious, but the separation between Mercy Center and PSKP is close enough that confusion is inevitable. They also used generic terms like "the trustees cover the travel expenses, etc" without explicitly stating who those trustees are.

The picture that I received of my sponsoree has "Mercy Center Scholarship" written on a dry-erase board behind him. Perhaps that helps to explain why I assumed that Mercy Center was the trustee? It does answer the mystery of where he was allocated from--from the Mercy Center's scholarship program to me. I didn't have enough info to connect all of the dots until now.

After reading through their site again, it is clear that many updates have been made...clarifications, etc. My comment the other day about not sending the same picture to two sponsors is now clearly spelled out on the site...that wasn't there just days ago. My guess is that they are either reading the forum or someone is sending them suggestions.

Recommended donation has gone from 60-120 Euro to 70-120. That's when I realized that I wasn't a crazy and the site actually has changed.

[colmx]

Sorry to deviate slightly from this post but:

I do wish posters would stop calling soi Ko Bpai a "slum"
The housing pictured above looks a lot better than the home that my BF was brought up in... in issan this is not considered a slum... its considered to be a village

To my mind the lot of the PKSPs Kids are no better or worse than most Issan kids

That said i applaud all who are willing to do something to help anyone... just wish you'd stop over-exagerating the situation or placing western terminology on eastern concepts...

[bao-bao]

I do wish posters would stop calling soi Ko Bpai a "slum"
The housing pictured above looks a lot better than the home that my BF was brought up in... in issan this is not considered a slum... its considered to be a village

To my mind the lot of the PKSPs Kids are no better or worse than most Issan kids

That said i applaud all who are willing to do something to help anyone... just wish you'd stop over-exagerating the situation or placing western terminology on eastern concepts...
Good point, colmx, thank you for reminding me.

I refer to the area as a slum because the folks there that I've worked with have referred to it as the "Go Pai slum", but I agree that itтАЩs mainly a matter of perspective. I too have been to the "backwater" areas in Issan but fortunately haven't seen villages that looked nearly as depressed as the Go Pai "living areas". I also know some fine people who have come from "the slums" - both here AND there.

I have seen depressed areas in and around Pattaya, Rayong, Udonthani and Bangkok and would consider this dwelling area to be what I could best classify as a slum, myself. Not as crowded or awful as those in other countries, perhaps, but still unfortunate.

Regardless, itтАЩs nice that there are some members who choose to do something to help people who are making a life there.

To my mind the lot of the PKSPs Kids are no better or worse than most Issan kids

From the pictures that I've seen you are undoubtedly correct, but a slum is "a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people."

I understand your gist--you don't like the connotation of the word. It seems to be an apt description since Pattaya is a city and farmers in Isaan are more likely to live a distance away from each other, aren't they?

There are poor people all over Thailand that could use a hand but since I'm not a millionaire, one solid charity that spends money wisely and vets recipients well is enough for me.

To my mind the lot of the PKSPs Kids are no better or worse than most Issan kids

From the pictures that I've seen you are undoubtedly correct, but a slum is "a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people."

A village is not a city and homes in a village tend to be spread out because they are farmers.

Haven't spent much time in a Thai village, have you?

Haven't spent much time in a Thai village, have you?

Spent a lot of time in a Wisconsin village. On a farm, no less.

I've read that at least some farmers have their land quite a ways from their homes. Is that normally the case?

It still doesn't make the village a city--I've only heard the term 'slum' applied to urban settings. The slums in India are a lot more clear-cut than they may be in Thailand.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200806/r258870_1074091.jpg

While it's wonderful that you spent time on a farm in Wisconsin, you might as well have been on the moon when it comes to understanding Thai rural life.

While it's wonderful that you spent time on a farm in Wisconsin, you might as well have been on the moon when it comes to understanding Thai rural life.

I'm not trying to understand Thai rural life at the moment. Get with the thread, carrot-head. We are discussing whether or not Go Pai should be called a slum just because the people in Isaan are just as poor.

If you want to add to the discussion by elaborating on housing density in Go Pai versus villages then go ahead.

While it's wonderful that you spent time on a farm in Wisconsin, you might as well have been on the moon when it comes to understanding Thai rural life.

I'm not trying to understand Thai rural life at the moment. Get with the thread, carrot-head. We are discussing whether or not Go Pai should be called a slum just because the people in Isaan are just as poor.

If you want to add to the discussion by elaborating on housing density in Go Pai versus villages then go ahead.

..don't mind the Bitch Bunny... she has multiple personallity... fortunately at least two of them have been banned (BoyGeenius and Chao Na) from this forum. :idea: :idea: :drunken:

but if u r going to attack the bunny, you better do better than going back and changing your old posts to suit your argument.
you were the one who asserted that "A village is not a city and homes in a village tend to be spread out because they are farmers" presumably based on your experience in Wisconsin. he merely pointed out that this assertion indicated that you had no knowledge of rural Thailand, where the houses are clumped together in a village rather than spread out.

[Impulse]

Im not sure BB is either boy genius or choa nai.Boy genious was in his forties,bb claims to be in his sixties. Boy genious would sometimes give helpfull advice where as BB only leaves SARCASTIC comments. Unless,boy genious was bitten by a mosquito and now cannot leave the radiant glow of his computer.I know one thing,beach bunny isnt getting much sex,even in Thailand,lol.

Im not sure BB is either boy genius or choa nai.Boy genious was in his forties,bb claims to be in his sixties. Boy genious would sometimes give helpfull advice where as BB only leaves SARCASTIC comments. Unless,boy genious was bitten by a mosquito and now cannot leave the radiant glow of his computer.I know one thing,beach bunny isnt getting much sex,even in Thailand,lol.

I'm in my sixties? News to me.

LOL. Perhaps I missed that post while I was on holiday in Miramar. I only crossed back into Chiang Mai across the bridge over the Moei River (at the town of Mae Sot) yesterday evening.

It may be worth pointing out, even though some will doubtless dispute it and/or question my motives for raising it, that education in Thailand (for Thais) is now mandatory for 9 years (to age 15) and that education at all Government schools is free (including tuition fees, text books, uniforms and an amount of stationery) for 12 years (to age 18).

The only exceptions are a few schools run by LEAs in Pattaya and Bangkok, where the local authorities are "encouraged" to match the government allowances but not yet "required" to do so.


I agree with Gone Fishing's description of the Go Pai slum and the people that live there....

I also agree with Gone Fishing on the well know charity that he makes reference to. .....

Thanks for that, Romania - I am relieved that, unlike some others, you are mature enough that our crossing swords in the past does not mean that you automatically dismiss everything I say (I hope I can do likewise). I could actually have said more concerning the charity I referred to but I refrained on the grounds that, like so many other charities, particularly in Pattaya, those being helped by the charity are better off with them than without. That does not stop those managing that particular charity, however, being a disgrace.


A village is not a city and homes in a village tend to be spread out because they are farmers......farmers in Isaan are more likely to live a distance away from each other, aren't they?

No. That is one of the dangers of making assumptions based only on pictures you have seen, etc (as has been pointed out with varying degrees of politeness!). Their land may well be some distance from the village - often it will be government land on whch they are allowed to farm but not build - but their houses (abodes may be a more accurate term) are often as close if not closer together than those in the "slums" you have seen picture of, as familes build more houses on the small piece of land that they own in the village. Moving outside the village may not be an option unless you are happy to live without electricity, water, road and school access, etc. My partner's village, for example, only had electricity and water less than 20 years ago and a road still more recently.

[thaiguest]

PKSP is run by a church so I doubt they are getting too extravagant with the expenses. They say that all donated funds go to the kids since the 2 staff are paid by the church through other funds.
Just to correct one error in mlonker's post - most likely an honest error since I believe he knows differently:

The Pattaya Street Kids Support Project is NOT run by - or a part of any church. Had that been the case I would have found another way to help in Thailand. Not a baht donated to a student via PSKSP is banked, used or kept by Mercy Center.

The woman who serves as PSKSP's liaison is a part of the Mercy Center, but her efforts for the PSKSP are entirely separate from the wonderful work she also does for Mercy. The translators who accompany sponsors on student visits are employees of Mercy Center but do this extra work on top of their Mercy duties. Sam actually helped me with a student visit on a Sunday, his day off.

In light of how good they've been to me I have also donated time and effort to the Mercy Center out of gratitude. The slum visits (to distribute bags of food) and prison visits (to take in sandwiches, fruit, water, aspirin, band-aids and the likes) are an effort of Mercy Center.

Since the PSKSP students are often attending the same schools as some of the Mercy sponsored students there can be some confusion, I know... but the two are separate entities.

This sounds terrible but I don't advocate supporting any of these foreign based groups.
Find your own worthy cause and support it.
The majority of these charities are fronts for religious groups, scams or self-promotion efforts.
I became interested in USA based, family run, educational charity in Cambodia. The message from them was clear:"help us to help the children but stay outside the inner circle". Through this charity the named family had members doing USA college post grad. studies on their experiences in Cambodia, had other members working under licence in Cambodia where employment is scarce and still others cultivating the local educational authority figures.
Cambodians (on their own admission) place far too much faith in foreign 'experts'. This is also true for many poorer asian nations and by god (sic.) do many of these so called 'selfless' helpers take advantage!

The main problem with Pattaya's charities, which reflect some of the problems of many charities world-wide, is simple.

It is not that there are so many of them, often trying to do similar things. At least four separate charities, for example, have been established with the aim of paying for the education of the "Soi Kophai slum" children, with a number of other charities/organisations such as Pattaya's four Rotary Clubs all clambering over each other to distribute largesse and to be seen to do so.

It is not that a few are far from transparent with their financial records or that some of the administrators appear to misuse their charity's funds for their own benefit or to be rewarded excessively for their time.

It is not that the established and recognised charities are any better or any more needed than some of the smaller ones - in many cases the reverse is often true.

It is not that those establishing and administering the vast majority of the charities are anything but "good people", well intentioned, well meaning, honest, dedicated and committed to trying to help those less fortunate than themselves - most of them are.

It is not even that some of the charities are totally unnecessary: some have moved on to avoid becoming charities without a cause and adopted new aims, while others still continue to attract committed supporters and financial support despite being unnecessary and redundant.

The problem is simply that a number of the charities are just badly run - in some cases incredibly badly run, bordering on total incompetence, and a lot of the funds raised are not deliberately misspent or misappropriated but are simply wasted. An uncontentious example here, which I have mentioned before, may be that of PAWS (the Pattaya Animal Welfare Society) which was established with admirable aims, run by well-meaning people and very well-funded largely due to a large legacy which could easily have made it self-supporting, but was a total failure (although I believe the charity is now starting again from scratch). Slightly closer to home (at least to my home), late last year one of Pattaya's leading and best known fund-raising groups raised a considerable amount of money at their annual charity event much of which went to re-furbish and re-equip my local village school, just outside Pattaya, with the usual publicity photos with local dignitaries and smiling needy children in run-down conditions; the school is now being closed (with no publicity) as not enough children were being registered to justify keeping it open.

There are other examples far closer to home, but the main point is that before you make a deliberate donation to any of Pattaya's many charities, rather than just attend a fund-raiser to feel good, make sure that you have done your research first - just because the charity's aims appear to be needed, their administrators to be good people, their expenses minimal and the recipients deserving does not necessarily mean that your money will do more good there than elsewhere. I used to support a number of Pattaya charities, personally and financially; now I only support one in the Pattaya area.

.....The only exceptions are a few schools run by LEAs in Pattaya and Bangkok, where the local authorities are "encouraged" to match the government allowances but not yet "required" to do so.

It certainly is the stated policy of the Government that they will fund the cost of uniforms, tuition fees, text books and some stationery but regrettably Pattaya seem to having fallen out of the loop .....

That is entirely Pattaya's (and Bangkok's) decision - both in terms of keeping control of their LEA (Local Education Authority) and in terms of how much is spent on funding the 11 schools that come under Pattaya's jurisdicion, and how that money is spent. Pattaya apparently prefers to spend the money paying for contracted-out programmes such as school transport and foreign English language teachers, although many government schools also provide free or heavily subsidised school transport, including all the govenment schools in my local area, and many also have foreign English language teachers which schools fund themselves by organising private (paid) extra-curricular classes in return for unpaid assistance in programmed classes. Despite the mayor's electoral pledge to make all education free, Pattaya actually spent more on the TV display outside City Hall which tells you the time and the weather (sometimes) than they have allocated for aditional school expenditure such as uniforms.

The only detectable differences between the LEA and Government schools (apart from the latter being free) is that a disproportionate amount is spent by the LEAs on external "beautification" of the schools (such as on school perimeter walls) and that the students at LEA schools are not required to have their hair cut short as in Government schools - a surprisingly important factor in the choice of schools for some, as there is actually considerable lee-way in the choice of which schools children can attend and while some prefer long hair as it is also permitted at private schools and hence considered highly desirable, many Pattaya residents choose to send their children to Government (non-LEA) schools, many of which locally are under-subscribed.

My point is not that any one particular charity is any more or less deserving than any other, since that is such a subjective and valued judgement call, but the simple fact, whether one likes it or not, is that donors and support are finite, particularly locally and for local charities, so charities are in competition with each other.

Weighing up, for example, the relative merits of supporting the education of a child which could change his future with supporting a child born with HIV and dying of Aids who has no future could be likened to performing triage on your mother, sister, wife and daughter at the same time, and there can be no "right" choice (only "wrong" ones).

[bao-bao]

My point is not that any one particular charity is any more or less deserving than any other, since that is such a subjective and valued judgement call, but the simple fact, whether one likes it or not, is that donors and support are finite, particularly locally and for local charities, so charities are in competition with each other.

Weighing up, for example, the relative merits of supporting the education of a child which could change his future with supporting a child born with HIV and dying of Aids who has no future could be likened to performing triage on your mother, sister, wife and daughter at the same time, and there can be no "right" choice (only "wrong" ones).
If I might add another bit to this, Gone Fishing: I'm not at all sure that you're not comparing apples and oranges in the last paragraph above - but I agree both are deserving.

Although I learned as a child it's not polite to toot one's own horn I choose to give what I can, where and when I can - somewhat like going around the wat and putting satang into different pots instead of one.

I just happen to favor furthering education and the "ripple effect" that action can start. Thanks for the information and your perspective on it, though. I learned a bit more from it.

... I'm not at all sure that you're not comparing apples and oranges in the last paragraph above...

That's exactly what I am doing, bao-bao: if you can only afford one, or you want to make the most of whatever funds you have available, you have to make a choice, whether it is fruit or charities.

[bao-bao]

Agreed (to an extent) but choosing between helping with the comfort of those that are dying and those that are trying to build a future are different - that's what I meant... AND both worthwhile things to do, in my opinion. Sorry if I wasn't clear in my response. You are correct that they are both charitable (but different) things to do.

However, by way of an example: if one chose to they could divide, say, $100 they wanted to donate to charity and give $50 to each and not make a choice, right?

Wouldn't you agree that the only good choice is an informed one, to avoid monies going to a "bad" charity? I'm guessing that you like most of us give what you can when you can to groups you feel worthy. Again, we can't save the world, but we can save little parts of it.

..... if one chose to they could divide, say, $100 they wanted to donate to charity and give $50 to each and not make a choice, right? .....Wouldn't you agree that the only good choice is an informed one, to avoid monies going to a "bad" charity?

Even Bill and Melinda Gates have to make a choice, but I would certainly agree that an informed choice is a better choice.

[bao-bao]

Even Bill and Melinda Gates have to make a choice...
If your donations are on an "all or nothing" basis then I agree with no argument whatsoever.

One person can rarely keep any one cause afloat alone, but one CAN help more than one cause... that was my point.

Thanks for helping keep this thread going. Gives me another chance to put in the Pattaya Street Kids' link again! :cheers:

http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/navig1.html

Go Pai is a 5 star hotel compared to other places. I just moved to India from Laos and live in a fairly well off area and see worse than that. Go Pai to be fair is a dump but in relative comparison it is no slum. If you just want to help because you want to help Thai children than go ahead. However there are many, much, much, much more needy children in the world.

I have worked in Cambodia, Laos, and India in this regard and can say without a doubt that Go Pai is not a true slum. Go to the municipal landfill in Phnom Penh and see the babies with bloated bellies and flies in their eyes. That is a true dump(pun intended), literally. The people there live off of garbage. HIV babies with no shoes, digging in the garbage, the air smells of burning plastic. It hurts to breath there and what you see is disheartening. You can't really go there alone even because the tuk tuk gets mobbed if you do. That is a true slum. As little as I think of Pattaya (and the surrounding area) it is a bit crappy and not a slum.
.

That being said I hope that the time of the volunteers and funds they solicited go to the right place. I am not saying it is nice there by any means. Obviously I wish everybody well in the long run but donating to that destination seems grossly misguided when there are so many others that don't even live to that standard.

Sorry if this is my first post but this topic was what influenced me to join.