On Sunday 2nd March the Olivers visited Hoay Maw with Tore from Open Hands. The purpose of the visit was for Tore to be able to see the situation at Hoay Maw and to meet up with Paul and Rattanaporn.

Pig Farm

The 3 piglets from the large mother and the 9 piglets from the small mother have been weaned and are now in a separate pen. The baby boys have had the elastic band treatment so they can be kept together with their sisters - "squeak piggy squeak!". The piglets are doing well but as they only have natural food (left overs and food from the forest) and not nutrient food (purchased), they will take longer to grow to full size. If possible we will try to introduce some nutrient food to give the health of the piglets and mothers a boost. The plumbing is working but needs attention to fix some leaks.

Growing Piglets

Mushrooms

The mushroom grow bags have arrived and have begun to produce a good crop (thank you to Open Hands and Arun Community Church)

Paul with new mushroom crop

Vegetables

Rattanaporn had taken the initiative to use the compost from the previous batch of mushroom grow bags to plant a new crop of Morning Glory within the shade of the mushroom shed. They also have a crop of vegetables growing behind the girls dorm.

Morning Glory

Children

They had taken 4 more children who had been brought to them by soldiers from the Burmese border. The children have no parents and were found alone. Many such children are fending for themselves in the jungle in Burma or have fled to refugee camps on the Thai side having lost their families. We discussed that there should be a criteria for children coming to the home and it was agreed that the priority should be for children who have no-one to care for them. This is not as simple to define as it sounds as there are many cases e.g. where children have a parent who has remarried and where the new step parent is abusive to the children. At present, there are a total of 97 children at the home. 43 children have nowhere else to go. 54 do have somewhere to go e.g. in school holidays. It was agreed that no more children would be taken on who had somewhere to go and that as the existing children graduated from school, that they would not be replaced. The emphasis would be for children who had nowhere else to go and the aim will be to reduce the overall number of children e.g. to 40 children. It will take some years for the other children to graduate.

The children look at Christmas photos

Organisation

Open Hands is supporting three further homes through another organisation. Tore had been given a document outlining the running of these homes. It included areas such as criteria for admittance, hygiene, costs, child protection, etc. On the way up, Jenny and Niti had the opportunity to read the document and agreed that there was much material that would be helpful for Hoay Maw. We hope to gain permission to access the document as a basis for a policy for Hoay Maw. Paul and Rattanaporn welcomed the idea.

Finances

We are very grateful that staff wages are being covered jointly by a sponsor from England and Open Hands, however, there is no other regular support e.g. for food. We discussed the cost per day per child for food. An original outline budget had allocated 10 B (15p) per child per day. They already have rice and mushrooms provided and they are growing some vegetables and bananas in season and so an absolute minimum level could be 5 B (7.5p) per child per day = 150 B (£2.25) per child per month = 15,000 B (£225) for 100 children per month (FOR FOOD ONLY).

Niti inspects the accounts

Misunderstanding

The next day we saw Paul again at the Wa Bible meeting in Mae Sai. Paul said that they hadn't received the 15,000 baht monthly money for food. When Niti arrived we were able to talk further. It transpired that because we had given them some Open Hands money for food in Nov and Dec that they had understood that this would be regular support. It was really tough to explain that this was not regular and also uncomfortable that they had in fact borrowed 24,200 baht from the market in the neighbour's name on their understanding that they would be receiving money for Jan and Feb. Paul also had to realise that there is now no money and no regular support for food. We asked him what he thought they should do. He replied that at the end of school year (end of March) he should tell the “families” of the 54 children that they could not return for the following school year unless they pay for the child's expenses. We asked Paul to work out the cost per child for food, school fees (books, etc) and a component for running costs. We felt that this is a necessary step to really find out who can contribute for their children and who cannot. We encouraged Paul to say that those who could pay could come back but the others couldn't come back unless there is a specific support to cover that child's expenses. We felt this was bold thinking from Paul and it would certainly be an encouraging step to see him take action to take responsibility and control of the financial situation.

Tore inspects the mushrooms

Visit to Chiang Mai

We have invited Paul and Rattanaporn to Chiang Mai for this coming weekend. They will stay at Ban San Faan children's home and spend time with the staff there. We will talk further with them then. We will also visit a fish farm project in Mae Taeng.

The Future

We are not sure whether this is a time of crisis or opportunity at Hoay Maw – possibly both. Open Hands is the only organisation that is hanging on with a component of regular support. Other organisations have been and gone. If they are ever to achieve regular support they are first going to have to demonstrate a well defined vision and sound management. We can help them to develop that but we cannot produce support ourselves. It might be a way forward to try and link them in with another existing organisation.

We are building up a picture of how similar homes are funded e.g. by a combination of sponsorship and self-sufficiency/income generation projects. The most radical project we have come across is a S.E.E.D. Project (Something to eat every day) in Nepal where a home of 20 children grow all their own food and generate some further income for other purchases. The site also serves as a training centre where pastors and church planters are trained in agricultural skills and self-sufficiency. They then use these skills to support themselves in remote villages and pass on the skills to improve the quality of life for those they are sharing the gospel with. They have a vision to set up demonstration sites in every country in Asia. A training week is planned for Apr 21st in Chiang Mai. Even so Thailand is renowned for it's poor work ethic and therefore micro-enterprise and self-sufficiency are a greater challenge in this country.