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We had the privilege to stay at Hoay Maw for a 24 hour period where we were able to document a day in the life of the children of Hoay Maw.

Their schedule was as follows

• 5.30am wake up and get dressed
• 6:00am prayers and worship in church led by house-parents
• 6:15am Chores – sweeping, litter picking, make beds, tidy shoes
• 6:40am Breakfast of rice with some chillies and egg mixed in 7:00am Line up and walk to school – more chores at school
• 8:00am School starts
• 12noon Eat packed lunch at school (rice from breakfast)
• 3:30pm Home from school
• 4:00pm Chinese school for 2 hours
• 6:00pm Play and Meal
• 7:00pm Time in church
• 8:00pm Homework (or “family group” time on Fridays)
• 9-10pm Bed-time

The children have a very long hard day compared to that which most children are used to. It was
however a joy to capture fun moments as the children are developing relational and recreational skills
in their “family groups”.

You can download the video below:

• Full Resolution MP4 141MB (if your player does not play this, try using VLC which does)
• Low Resolution MP4 30MB (if your player does not play this, try using VLC which does)
• Full Resolution MP2 DVD Quality - VERY LARGE 574MB file

On Mon 3rd June, Adrian, Jenny and Niti visited Hoay Maw returning on Tues 4th. This was to be our last visit before returning to England. We wanted to check the status of the home and also gather information, photos and video. We wanted to portray a day in the life of a child at Hoay Maw. By staying overnight on the site of the home, we had an opportunity to see and experience many aspects of the day.

On the way up, we shopped for hygiene and food provisions for the home.

School Uniforms:

Soon after our arrival at about 3pm, the children began to arrive home from school. We wanted to get some photos of the uniforms to be able to report back to supporters, in this case: Links Christmas Gifts and remaining money from ACC Blessings in a Bag and other individual donations. The money that we have been able to pass on to them them has provided 1 shirt and 1 skirt/shorts per child plus the annual school fees and some basic stationery items. It would be ideal for the children to be able to have a 2nd shirt, socks and some replacement shoes. Even so, it is a great step for the children to be able to attend school and it was a joy to see the young students wearing their uniforms with pride.

“A Day In the Life of a Child at Hoay Maw”:

5.30am	wake up and get dressed
6:00am	prayers and worship in church led by house-parents
6:15am	Chores – sweeping, litter picking, make beds, tidy shoes
6:40am	Breakfast of rice with some chillies and egg mixed in
7:00am	Line up and walk to school – more chores at school
8:00am	School starts
12noon	Eat packed lunch at school (rice from breakfast)
3:30pm	Home from school
4:00pm	Chinese school for 2 hours
6:00pm	Play and Meal
7:00pm	Time in church
8:00pm	Homework (or “family group” time on Fridays)
9-10pm	Bed-time

The children have a very long hard day compared to that which most children are used to. It was however a joy to capture fun moments as the children are developing relational and recreational skills in their “family groups”.

Fellowship:

We felt that Joseph and the family were pleased that we were staying over. We enjoyed an evening meal together and were pleased to see that Joseph is at last looking in better health following the bout of Dengue fever.

Wa Bible:

We discussed the Wa Bible. Joseph reported that the modification phase has been completed. Now Joseph's brother Solomon is preparing the changes in an electronic form for us to incorporate into the sources and re-format. We have emailed Dr Paul in order to check that the recording of changes is being done correctly. We are willing to visit Mae Sai to assist Solomon if required.

Children:

There are 8 new children who are refugees from Burma. They are in the process of trying to get papers for them so that they will be eligible to attend Thai school. Of course at the moment they don't yet speak Thai but Burmese and Chinese. They are attending the Chinese school.

We wanted to be able to communicate something of the backgrounds of the children. We decided to focus initially on children from Burma as there are a significant number and Burma is in the news at the moment. We took some video of some children whilst Paul explained their background. The story of the children from Burma is generally that their families had to flee from their villages when raided by soldiers. Their parents were shot and killed. The children, some only 6 years old, manage to escape through the jungle and over the Thai border. There, they hang around the streets in the border area where they are extremely vulnerable to unscrupulous people wishing to exploit children in the drugs and sex industry. The Thai soldiers know of Hoay Maw as a place of safety for these children and so bring them there.

Paul said that he was reluctant to take the children knowing of our advice to limit the number of children but that he felt that he could not send them away. I'm afraid that we have to support this decision.

Paul said that he will try very hard to keep the total number of children below the max of 80. The significant change is that the children at Hoay Maw are now all 'true orphans'. This is in contrast to many other homes. Some, called “hostels”, are like boarding schools and enable children to receive an education – a valid goal. The proliferation of this type of home in Indonesia has recently been featured by the BBC (Reality behind Aceh's 'orphans'). Whilst we feel that these “hostels” meet the important need of enabling children to receive an education, we personally feel that there are issues of undermining the family unit and community. We also feel that it is essential that supporters are clearly aware of the purpose of the home that they are contributing towards. We can now clearly state that the focus of Hoay Maw is on the care of 'true orphans'.

Chinese School:

We were pleased to hear that Dr Paul (Taiwanese) has managed to secure sponsorship for the Chinese school of 20,000 baht per month (~£300 / $600). This is covering the expenses of the school including the teachers. The school is certainly an asset to the children in the home as well as in the community. It is a positive development that there is now a clear separation between the finances of the Chinese School and the home.

Pigs:

The pig pen and pigs are in good condition. The piglets are quite small because they have only had natural food. We are now able to provide money for nutrient food to give the piglets a boost. The money is from the Links Christmas Gifts this year.

Staff:

Paul and Ratanaporn have been on a 3 week course on child-care in Taiwan. They found it beneficial. It was good to see that they are taking the management of the staff and home very seriously.

The old man, Wan, who feeds the pigs became seriously ill with a brain cancer. He went to his daughter's house. His daughter rang to say that he had no pulse. They took him to the hospital and prayed. At the hospital he revived!

Somchai is a very good worker. He is the cook for the home and is currently feeding the pigs as well.

Kitisak, the boys care leader has had to leave to care for his sick mother. Another male care worker has come from Burma. He has experience and is turning out to be a real asset. He interacts well with the children and is a good role model. He also leads worship for the children.

Finances:

Niti audited and signed the accounts. They still have 10,000 baht (£165/$330) outstanding at the market for Apr. They have spent further money this month of May (probably a similar amount). This is a relatively low amount required to provide a basic diet for the children. However, if there is no regular support then it is inevitable that debt will increase and become a serious problem. It is still our desire to try and set up a basic level of regular support but we would like to seek input as to how that might be done. Our feeling is that it is not big money. We also set an even higher priority on the relational aspect of being able to partner with people of all ages who would have an interest and heart for these children.

Obviously there are more costs involved than the food from the market, e.g. clothes, school, gas, electricity, staff and maintenance. We don't know the exact figures but have a fairly confident inclination that an amount of £15 per child per month (i.e. one take-away meal for a family in the West or equivalent to the pocket money that many youngsters receive in a month) would make it possible for the home to run at a basic level.

Rough estimate of monthly costs:

20,000 baht	staff (currently covered by an individual supporter and Open Hands)
10,000 baht	food market
10,000 baht	hygiene and other misc
5,000 baht	gas / electricity
5,000 baht	pig food and project
5,000 baht	home maintenance
5,000 baht	medical expenses
10,000 baht	school uniforms, fees and materials
70,000 baht	Total per month

£15 per month, per child, for 77 children = 71,610 baht / £1155 / $2310

Update:

We are grateful to be able to report at this point that Open Hands have indicated that they will be able to provide increased support over the coming months. This should make it possible for Hoay Maw to subsist without going into debt at the market.

Other needs:

It has been decided that rather than repair the mosquito screens, that it would be cost effective and straight forward to buy mosquito nets for each of the children to have over their beds. There have been Malaria and Dengue warnings in the area and obviously Joseph himself has contracted Dengue. The total cost of the nets would be 10,000 baht (£170 / $340). We have decided to forward the money for this from our project account in order to avoid further delay.

We have used remaining money donated from a coffee morning in Cirencester towards reusable plastic boxes so that the children can take a box of rice to school for lunch. The cook prepares enough rice at breakfast time for the children to take for lunch as well.

Care Policy:

We have been pleased to be in touch with Sarah Armitage, the children's projects co-ordinator for Partners World. She has kindly agreed to allow us to use their care guideline document as a basis for our own.

It is our intention to also liaise with the Haven Foundation based at our church here in order to develop a policy for Hoay Maw and potentially for wider use. It would also be used for the new children's home in Laos.

Home Visit:

We will be in the UK from 20th June - 8th Aug. We will be doing a mission focus on Hoay Maw at Powerpack, Kingdom Faith.

On Friday 19th April the Olivers and Niti visited Hoay Maw. After buying fresh meat, fruit and vegetables from the market, we headed on to Hoay Maw.

'Fresh Meat?'

'Red Hot Chilli Peppers!'

We also took some hygiene supplies and quite a lot of used clothes. One of the main aims of this visit was to reinforce to Paul that he must advise the “families“ that their children could not stay unless they covered the expenses for their children. We felt that this was a very bold step that would require support to carry out.

'Loading up'

'Unloading'

When we arrived we delivered the supplies and then enjoyed lunch with Joseph and Paul. Joseph is still suffering from after effects of dengue fever and has lost a lot of weight and is still quite tired. After lunch we spent some time talking with Paul and Rattanaporn.

Children:

We were very pleased and impressed to find that Paul had already informed the families at the end of term that their children could not return unless they paid. The expectation is that those children will not return after the break. There are now 55 children in the main orphanage home. There are a further 7 children who live in Joseph's house. These 7 children have limited communication only speaking Wa and not speaking either Chinese or Thai.

When we first started helping at Hoay Maw there were 184 children. At that time we wanted to explore the feasibility of sending children back to their villages where possible. It was satisfying to see this being fulfilled, although also very sobering that most of these children will now receive little or no education due to the pitiful or non-existent provision of education in remote villages. The family backgrounds of these children also embrace a range of challenges including severe poverty, abusive step-parents, parents with HIV or AIDS, in prison, or with addictions to drugs or alchohol. - However - As much as we would love to see care and education provided for all of these children, Hoay Maw do not have anywhere near the adequate resources for this provision at this time.

The remaining children have nowhere to go and no one to care for them and the care of these children will now become the main focus of this home. It is positive that all of these children either have Thai ID or have the documentation required to become eligible for this at age 15. This means that all of these children are entitled to attend the local Thai school.

The Home:

The children were given a meal while we were there. Although the food was simple and economical, it was nicely cooked and nutritious (with vegetables and morsels of meat). The whole home was very tidy and well kept (on a previous visit, Malee from Ban San Faan commented that she was impressed by this). We later saw the children airing their mattresses and sweeping the rooms.

The mosquito screens need repair and Paul is going to arrange for the materials to be ordered. Paul and the staff will carry out the repairs themselves - N.B. No need for expensive tradesman!

'Lunch Line-up'

'Airing the beds'

School:

The new school year commences in the coming weeks. In order to attend school, each of the 62 children will require some new school uniform (~£5/$10 per child) and will also be required to pay an annual school fee of ~£5/$10 (elementary) - £10/$20 (high school) per child. We are grateful for contributions via Links International Christmas Gifts for "school uniforms" that will help towards this. We are also hoping to be able to use remaining money from the Christmas "Blessings in a Bag" project which was sponsored by Arun Community Church, Open Hands, Living Word Church as well as other individuals. Thank you all for your care and for partnering with us for the benefit of the children at Hoay Maw.

'Sweet Potatoes'

Vegetables:

It was disappointing that the mushrooms and the morning glory were not thriving well at this time because of the current very hot season. It was however encouraging that the vegetables behind the girls' dorm (it used to be the boys') are doing very well as waste water (not sewage!) flows down onto them. A new planting of sweet potatoes adjacent to the pig pen is also doing well.

Pig project:

The pig pen was in a very good condition. The plumbing had been repaired. The 3 piglets of the large mother are significantly larger than the other piglets even though they are a month younger and started off tiny. This confirms the decision to keep the large mother. The 12 piglets are all progressing well. We plan to get nutrient food in order to accelerate the growth of the piglets. Paul is arranging to have an iron frame made to prevent the large mother from squashing the newborn piglets. We plan to use money from the Links International Christmas Gifts for "piglets" towards this. Thank you again for all who contributed to this.

'Younger but Bigger'

'Grub's Up!'

Vision:

Paul and Ratanaporn agreed that at this point they have a simple and well defined vision:

• To provide a home and care to bring up the children who are “true orphans”.
• To develop the quality of care to address the physical, social, educational and spiritual needs of the children.
• To limit the number of children in order to control finances and to not compromise the quality of care.
• To manage and develop the staff team.
• To endeavour where possible to develop projects that can contribute towards the running of the home in a move towards increased self-sufficiency and decreased dependency.

Finances:

Niti audited and signed the accounts. Having cleared the debts at the market from Jan-Mar, they have now spent about a further 10,000 baht (£165/330) this month (Apr). We have been concerned to avoid debt however, the home has no regular support for food and therefore it is inevitable that debt will be a progressive problem unless they receive some supplementary income.

Our principal has always been to encourage them towards increased self-sufficiency. In the past we have been reluctant to consider encouraging outside support because of inadequate management and accountability and also to first build relationship and define a common vision as a pre-requisite for further support.

We actually believe that significant strides have been made including:

• Clear recording and accountability of finances.
• Willingness to take radical steps to control financial output and an understating that expenditure can not be initiated without prior agreement.
• A mind set that is not looking for hand-outs but where there is willingness to take responsibility for their own lives.
• A simple, well-defined vision.
• Management that is teachable and willing to work as a team and also competent to oversee staff, projects and child care at the home.
• A staff team that have the ability to provide care for the children and development of projects.

Future:

We have come to a point where we would like to be able to explore a way of establishing a level of regular support for the home in order to provide a stable basic income. We would value your prayers that we would have wisdom regarding the best way to achieve this.

'Sawatdii Khrap!'

'Jim meets Paul & Rattanaporn'

Jim Reynolds:

Jim Reynolds is a teacher at GIS who has expressed an interest in Hoay Maw. We were very pleased to be able to give Jim Reynolds an opportunity to asses the situation at Hoay Maw. We believe that he was positively impressed by Paul and Rattanaporn as well as by the progress that has been made in the management of the home.

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.

Having completed the recording of personal details of the 88 children living at Hoay Maw up to the Summer, we now have a clearer picture of the overall background.

We were not entirely surprised to find that the majority of the children do have parents and relatives in their home villages.

The breakdown is as follows:

	Total	Mother & Father	Mother only	Father only	Adult relative	Sibling	None
Girls	50	28	4	4	4	1	9
Boys	38	26	2	3	2	0	5

A number of the parents and relatives are either in prison or affected by AIDS. At this stage, we don't know how many. Others are in situations of extreme poverty.

During the Summer, 40 more children were taken on. The details of these children have not yet been recorded but we understand that some of the children are from Burma, have no relatives and no birth certificates or Thai IDs.

In Thailand, if you have a Thai ID you are eligible for a very basic health care scheme whereby you are supposed to able to get treatment for 30 Baht (45p / 90c). Even then you don't always get treatment. Without a Thai ID you have to pay private rates.

Children with Thai ID are eligible for an education in a Thai school. Most of the children at Hoay Maw attend the local Thai school which has recently been rebuilt. The children without Thai ID cannot attend Thai school and are attending the Chinese school that runs in the evenings on the site of the children's home.

Even with Thai ID, health and education services for village, hill-tribe people are often non-existent and without Thai ID you are 'persona non-grata', i.e. 'no identity', 'no rights', 'not welcome here'.

Wan Pen - 'Persona Grata'

Above is Wan Pen helping prepare a meal for us. She has no Thai ID. She received a limited education at the Chinese school. She is not allowed to work. Wan Pen now helps look after the youngest children at Hoay Maw and also as a girls care assistant at the home. She receives 1,000 Baht (£15, $30) per month for her work. In God's eyes Wan Pen is 'Persona Grata' - loved, welcomed, wanted, valued.

One of the children without Thai ID had had an accident. Pastor Joseph took the child to hospital. Because there was no ID, they were told that they could not receive 30 Baht treatment. Joseph explained that the child was registered at the school and was sent back to get papers. He returned with the papers but was still charged 1,500 Baht (£22.50). This was for a minor treatment.

In the villages there is no birth control. People want to have more children work in the fields and to support them in their old age. There is no access to schooling in most of the villages. Young children are a burden on families already trapped in poverty. Sending children to a 'hostel' where they can receive food, shelter and an education is seen as a good option.

There is a dilemma as to whether offering this option is encouraging families to relinquish responsibility for their own children. It's difficult to say.

Changing attitudes on the ground will be a long process (over generations) but in receiving an education and learning vocational skills, it is more likely that these children will have different opportunities and will think differently to their parents.

A ray of hope for the next generation.