cut and paste from pattaya street kids website
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This will be the tenth consecutive year that we have organised New Year Parties, ensuring that all of the children we are helping have a special fun day during the New Year Holiday season but we need your help to do so. These parties also give us an opportunity to meet the children in an informal, fun atmosphere and gain a better understanding from them personally of their day-to-day needs. Again, this year, with your help we look forward to entertaining over five-hundred children at three separate parties and we want to share our plans with you.
Some of the worst slums in Thailand can be found in Pattaya where children consider that тАШnormalтАЩ living conditions can be as basic as plastic sheeting supported by a few bamboo sticks, or huts made from corrugated iron sheets and odd scraps of timber. This year there will be three different parties for the children to help them escape into a fun atmosphere for a few hours.

Slum Children:
It is difficult to estimate the number of children who will attend but we are budgeting for one hundred, and they will be given a family food pack to take home after the party. These are children from the various slums dotted around Pattaya. We are also planning to include the children from the Mercy Home in this party.

Scholarship Students:
We arrange a lunchtime celebration at School Number Seven for the students that are on our scholarship programme. The school has about one-hundred children who are on our programme and who are committed to their education; they have a party at their school with games, and music, food and gifts which will include a family food pack to take home at the end of the day. For those students that are not able to attend this party owing to them being at different schools we will make sure that those kids receive a gift and a family food pack.

Hauy Phong ChildrenтАЩs Home:
There are over three-hundred children here aged between 5 & 17 who were rescued from the streets, abandoned by their parents due to poverty, run away from home because
of abuse, or rescued from working in the sex trade.
The home is part of the Thai GovernmentтАЩs Department for the Prevention
of Human Trafficking. For their party the kids plan the meal, last year it
was pork, shrimps, eggs and noodles with chicken and rice, this was
followed by a now firm favourite Crepes and Ice Cream! They enjoy
entertainment from the other kids, dance the evening away at a disco or
sing their hearts out at Karaoke before leaving with a special gift and
falling into bed near to midnight! The photo of the children at the top of
this page, taken in January at the last New Year Party, shows how much
they enjoyed their day. For the 2011 party the kids have asked if they can
have an inflatable 4metre high Jungle-slide for the day so we are looking into this and as it is something that these kids rarely have an opportunity to play on we are hoping we can arrange this special request for them.

This short video of the children at last year's party show just how much they enjoyed themselves: YouTube

Costs have risen in Thailand during the past year owing to both the continuing political unrest in the Kingdom and the ongoing problems with the fragility of the worldтАЩs economy still severely affecting the tourist trade to Thailand, thus increasing the burden on poor families who are already living in poverty. However, we are confident that we can still maintain the high standard of food, entertainment and gifts of previous years within the same ┬г2.50 per head budget that we set for the previous nine years, any surplus funds donated in excess of our budgeted costs will be spent on additional gifts for the children.
The children at Hauy Phong look forward to their party with great excitement for it is the one day of the year when they can forget about their problems and enjoy a hearty meal of their choice, great entertainment, receive special treasured gifts and it gives them a memorable start to the New Year by knowing that others are thinking and care about them. The parties cost only ┬г2.50 per head and everyone involved in organising these parties gives their time on a voluntary basis.

This means that 100% of your donation will be used for the children

We hope that you can see your way clear to making a donation and in doing so help us create a very special day for these children

Don Ford
Treasurer / Trustee
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November 2010 Update

Now that the childrenтАЩs parties for the New Year are well into the final planning stages this seems to be an ideal opportunity to update you with what we have been doing during the year and also share a couple of the yearтАЩs highlights.

We have continued to take more students onto the scholarship scheme whilst at the same time we have seen a few reach the age of eighteen and finish their schooling before moving onto further education and also some into full-time employment. It is always gratifying knowing that without the help of our supporters the prospects of these children and young people would have been far bleaker.

An increase to our General Funds has enabled us to make the home lives of many of the children more comfortable by replacing old bedding with new, ensuring that where extra food is required that we supply it, making sure that where a child needs extra clothing that we fund it and, in some cases, make sure that their homes are connected to mains water. As always clothing comes high on the list of the childrenтАЩs needs and thanks to Liz and Sam in Pattaya who make regular home visits to the children we are generally able to keep up to date with the childrenтАЩs requirements and can step in to assist as required.

We were able to make a drastic difference to one young boy at the Hauy Phong ChildrenтАЩs Home; тАШPanтАЩ, who was removed from his family after being abused, had a large black birthmark on his left cheek. This type of blemish is often seen in Thai culture as being a punishment for sins in a previous life and would have labelled тАШPanтАЩ as socially undesirable and greatly reduced the prospects of him ever finding any gainful employment or making any progress in Thai society. We arranged for тАШPanтАЩ to be treated at the Bangkok / Chonburi Hospital and the surgeons were able to remove the birthmark at a cost of ┬г400 and initial concerns that the growth may have also been cancerous were disproved by a biopsy. In a few months the scarring will have disappeared and тАШPanтАЩ can look forward to a much brighter future. Photos of тАШPanтАЩ before and after the operation can be seen on both our website and blog.

Again at the Hauy Phong Home we have recently replaced the mattresses, sheets, pillow cases, and top sheets on 120 beds. The old bed sets have been in use for many years by many different children and the inevitable night-time accident by many traumatised children took its toll on the bedding. We have replaced the bedding just in time for the colder winter nights at a cost of ┬г4000.

I will be visiting Pattaya during the Christmas and New Year holiday period and will be able to see for myself the progress we have made since my last visit. The personal highlights of my trip will be the visits to the Hauy Phong Home. At present there are just over three-hundred children in care at Hauy Phong and it is always good to meet the children and spend time with them. Many of the kids at the Home I have known for up to nine-years and it is always good to meet them again and see how they have grown. Of course the downside to that is the only reason I have been privileged to watch them grow-up is because either they have no family to care for them or would be at risk of abuse if they were allowed to return to the family.

Our thanks go to everyone who has supported the Charity throughout the year and to those sponsors who have taken it upon themselves to go over and above sponsoring a child for a scholarship by also funding extra food and home improvements to help make the life of these kids a little more bearable.

When I return from Pattaya in late January I will update everyone on the current situation there, but for now I will take this take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and hope that from this brief update you are able to see that your money is being put to good use.

Don Ford

Treasurer / Trustee
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for more info of how you can help the street kids go to
http://pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/navig1.html

look down the side and click on any button

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