Read about some of the children we help

URGENT APPEAL - Patchaleeda Somjit

Thanks to the Goodey family for offering to sponsor Patchaleeda

January 2006.
The Anglo-Thai party are currently in Thailand for the annual
Grant Giving ceremonies.

We have just received an email from Carol, one of our Trustees, who met Patchaleeda at her school in Surin. This is what Carol wrote:

"At Lung Pung school in Surin province we noticed a young girl on her way home from school who was walking with the aid of a long bamboo cane. We looked closer and saw that she only had one leg. The teachers told us her name was Patchaleeda and that she had lost her leg below the knee as a result of a car accident at the age of two. She was now seven years old and living with her grandparents and younger sister as her father is away on a deep sea fishing boat. Her mother is also absent having gone to work at the home port in the south of Thailand .

Patchaleeda walks one kilometre to and from school every day with the aid of her cane. Because of the accident, she started school two years late and as a result is behind in her studies. She has not had the best start in life and the Anglo Thai Foundation would like to ensure that through increased mobility and a decent education she has the chance for a better future."

We have already given the school emergency funds for her immediate needs and also for an assessment of her medical requirements. But Patchaleeda needs help in the future until she finishes her education.The provisional cost will be for:

      • School uniform, equipment and stationery.
      • A daily food allowance.
      • Medical expenses- a prosthetic leg, medication, consultations and physiotherapy.

An approximate total of 10,000 Baht per year, (or £3 per week)

this is a rough estimate of the cost for a year as the teachers haven't yet got back to us with the total price of consultations, medication, prosthetic leg etc. They have bought her two sets of school uniform and shoes already today as well as a proper crutch.

Please note that Patchaleeda needs long term help so we are looking for a sponsor prepared to commit to at least four years. If you think you can help, please contact carol@anglo-thai.org as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Yes, very quickly the Goodey family responded to this message, and we now know that Patchaleeda will be looked after: we will monitor her progress and keep you informed. In the meantime, the work doesn't stop. If you came here wanting to help Patchaleeda - sorry somebody has beaten you to it, but there are lots more kids who need your support, so please do get in touch with us to see how you can help somebody else..

 

The Foundation has been running for sixteen years now, so many of the children who were very young in our early days are coming up to school leaving age and are being replaced by a new intake. This year (2004) we have recruited 70 new children who fit our criteria of need and ability.

These children, pictured here with co-founder Ajahn Laow and Secretary Jean Young, are three of our youngest newcomers who will be getting the start in life they deserve, with a Foundation grant to help their education

As yet they have no sponsors, they are paid for out of general funds. If you would like to sponsor one of them, please click here to go to the sponsorship page.

 

Kanjana has been with us for a number of years, and also had no sponsor, but she lives in hope.
We recently received a letter from her, in which she wrote:

"To the one I love the most!!!
Hello, let me introduce myself, my name is Kanjana Trachoo. I am in grade 9 , Ban Panjakam school. I am disabled and would like to do the best in my study as I am aware that education is the most important thing to me though I am the poor person. I have the chance to study since grade one till present because of the fund granted by Anglo-Thai Foundation. I promise to spend the money wisely and economically as I am aware how difficult to raise the fund. I am sending my picture to you, I am disabled but wish you are not dislike my disability. I used to think many times that I will quit the school to find the job to take care my eye so that people will not insult me as the blind girl who have only one eye. May I have your picture and please send your letter to me at my address. I wish to have your address as well. My father and mother have died. My mom has died when I was in grade 5 and dad has died in grade 6. May I wish you to be my second mom and dad? I am living in a small house with my aunty and never feel any happy. Please give me the moral support to my study . Let me finish the letter . I have poor handwriting , hopefully I am not bothering your time too much. I promise I will write to you again
Love you very much, Kanjana Trachoo
PS I wish to see England and wish you happiness. Please do write to me I am waiting."
 

There has been a tremendous response to this appeal, and we are pleased to say Kanjana now has a sponsor, in addition to somebody who wrote in to offer funding to treat her disability (she is blind in one eye, and scarred). When we next go to Sisaket we will evaluate her medical condition with a view to treatment. There are however still lots of our children who don't have the security of regular sponsorship. If you would like to help one of them, please click here to go to the sponsorship page,

We get many letters like this: if you live in the UK, and can read Thai we always have work for volunteer translators - please email if you think you may be able to help.
   
One person who needs no sponsorship now is Witthaya Senaphakdi
Witthaya has been receiving a Foundation grant since he was in Grade 9 at school, has recently graduated from Law School and now works in the commercial law department of this bank in Benjelak where we went to interview him. His circumstances were exactly the same as those of other children you read about on this site: he attributes his success entirely to his Foundation grant, without which he would most probably remained as a subsistence farmer. He truly represents the aims of the ATF: that of lifting children out of the povery trap.
Suphera's Story
This is the story of Suphera: a little girl I met when I went to Thailand with Ajahn Maha Laow to get some background information for this website. I came home with a pledge that I would sponsor her through secondary school. Its so easy to do, and it will make so much difference to her.

It is a short extract from my diary
'A Journey to Thailand' which details the whole trip and my reasons for making it. Now with 2004 updates.

To download the whole story as a zip file please click here (about 30Kb)

To download the story as a PDF file please click here (about 250Kb)

Go to the links page for PDF and zip software

Suphara is 10. (written in 2001) She is an orphan, her father died before she was born and her stepfather, being Chinese saw no point in supporting a girl. Her mother disappeared into Bangkok seeking work, leaving Suphara in the care of her Grandmother, who had died just two weeks before we arrived, so she is now in the care of her step-grandfather.

She is top of her class at school, and despite her primitive background has an ambition to be a doctor - and her teacher thinks she has the potential ability. Suphara's problem is that, although secondary education is free in Thailand, it is not compulsory. Her foundation grant is sufficient while at primary school, but the chances are that, being an orphan with nobody to support her, in a couple of years time she too would follow her mother to Bangkok to be swallowed up by, depending on her luck and morals, the construction industry or sex industry. There are in Thailand a number of regional secondary boarding schools funded by the Royal Family to cater especially for children like Suphara. The Foundation hopes to be able to gain a place for her, but to go there to she would have to be financially self sufficient, in that she would need just £250 a year to enable her to complete her school education.

Suphara is typical of the sort of children that the Anglo Thai Foundation supports. We met her on the Foundation's 2001 trip to Si Sa Ket province, where she lives in the very simple and remote village of Tumbol Takone. Her story is by no means unique, there are many more like her. If you would like to help somebody like Suphara, please contact us for details how you can help us with our work in this deprived region of Thailand.

Sponsoring a child can cost as little as £50 per year: not a lot to yourself, but a world of difference to the children we support.
You can make a single donation, or complete a standing order for regular donations

 
We bought Suphera a new bike, of which she was very proud
Suphera is the star pupil in her class
At home with her grandad

 

I have left my original account above unchanged, but we have seen Suphera grow up. On the left is a picture taken in 2002. We visited her at home, where she still lives, but now with her aunt & uncle. When we arrived she had just had a shower, having completed her daily task of tending the several cows they now posess. There was no need to send her to boarding school as she has a more secure family life.

On the right is Suphera at the 2004 grant giving. She has joined the Girl Guides, and was a world apart from the little waif we met in 2001.