The Olivers In Thailand

Normally if I was asked to attend a staff meeting I would think it uninspiring (no offence to Eurotherm intended). This case was completely different. We have felt that the next step should be to put in place a simple staff structure. In particular we would like to appoint a married couple as house-parents.

House-parents will give the children a role-model of marriage and parenthood, something of which they have very little experience. At the same time we were thinking about developing staff, we were incredibly blessed that a couple visiting from England have offered to pay the salaries for the house-parents. We have begun making enquiries to find the right couple.

In the mean-time, there are others who have a heart to work with the children. We have been given permission to use the money for house-parents for the other staff until the house-parents are appointed.

This was our first opportunity to meet with the staff and discuss our vision and plans.

Staff team meeting

The staff include:

Rattanaporn	Rattanaporn (27) is married to Pastor Joseph's son, Paul. They have a 6 month old baby son. At the moment Paul is in Taiwan earning money to support the family. Rattanaporn has a qualification in management including a unit in accountancy. On previous visits, she has been in the background but it was wonderful to see her enthusiasm and skills as she responded to the ideas and plans that we presented. She will take on areas of administration including staff personel matters, accounts for running the home and projects.
Kittisak	Kittisak will be the care team leader. With 4 care workers (we need another female) and in the future the house-parents, this will mean that 6 carers can each supervise the care of about 30 children. Each carer will train and develop 3 or 4 of the older children to oversee a group of 10 children. They will aim to develop the relationships within these "family groups" and to spend time talking, learning, eating and playing games together. Kittisak's Mother is seriously ill so please pray for them.
Pracca	Pracca (23) has been born and raised in the Hoay Maw community. He will be a care worker with the boys. He will also help with running projects and helping the children's involvement in projects.
Wan Pen	Wan Pen is a teenager from the Wah people group. She has no Thai ID and therefore cannot attend school. She is not allowed to live in the orphanage and so lives in the home with Pastor Joseph and his wife and helps look after the very young children. Wan Pen will work as a care assistant with the girls.
Yang San	Yang Sang is the cook. He has an artificial leg but copes very well and works very hard preparing meals for the children.
Waan (and daughter)	Waan has been helping at the orphanage for 2 months with cooking and practical work.

On the day following our meeting, we noticed that the staff were active in supporting the children in the pig training. Niti instructed Kittisak and Pracca how to repair the cracks in the tank and they have already done it. Rattanaporn has opened a bank account and has informed us of the details. We have also asked them to work on the grouping of the children in single-sex groups. We have encouraged them to embrace the development of the projects with a view to generating their own wages. This will be a process but an important shift in their thinking.

It is through this small but structured staff team that we believe it will be possible to consolidate progress in the areas of caring for the children and establishing the projects that will lead to a greater level of self-sufficiency.

We plan to run training sessions for the staff relating to child-care, child-protection, etc.

We hope to find suitable house-parents as soon as possible but will then need to find wages to continue to support the rest of the staff for an initial period of at least 6 months. This will cost less than a total of £200 per month.