New Life Outreach

Nong Kut comes from a dysfunctional family with his father imprisoned for life for drug trafficking. Kut's father was imprisoned when Kut was born and since than his mother has struggled to raise him up. His mother who single handedly raised him is also now working with RADION.

Kut has been doing excellently in school and in the next term, he will be without a sponsor.
Please email me if you are keen to sponsor Kut for the next education year.

Monthly sponsorship is at SGD98/month.

I've just got back to Singapore after a tiring 15hour bus/taxi/flight journey from Phetchabun back to Singapore.

Some quick updates.
1 ) Songkran 2009 is still open for registration. The price is at SGD800 instead of SGD900 due to the unavailability of better accommodation. So if you plan to jump on this trip, be prepared to rough it out with us in fanned cool bunks :)

2 ) Streetkids Sponsorship - Nong Kut will be without a sponsor from next month onwards. If you would like to sponsor him, please drop me a mail. (I'll write a little more about him in the next few days). 2-3 more kids are scheduled to join the streetkids program :)

3 ) Sponsors For StreetKids! - All streetkids sponsors should be receiving a mail from their sponsored children this month.

4 ) Community Development Project - There are a couple of needy families requiring assistance and have asked us if we have jobs available for them. I'll be blogging more about this shortly as well.

5 ) Meetings & Scheduling - I will be only available from 30 onwards and I'll be returning on 16th Apr to Thailand. If you would like me to brief your groups or organisation on our programmes, please contact me to reserve a slot. Thanks. eugene@radion-international.org

Hmong food supply cut
Thailand

The Thai military blocked food supplies over the weekend to a Hmong refugee camp in an apparent effort to force the 5,400 “illegal immigrants” to return to Laos.
.
On Friday, the military prevented Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) from delivering food supplies to Ban Huay Nam Khao camp in Phetchabun province, 250 km north-east of Bangkok.
.
Hmong leader Lee Sue has reportedly called on Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission to investigate the military’s conduct.
.
The Thai military reportedly cut off food supplies to punish the Hmong camp inmates for refusing to be counted, seen by some Hmong as a first step towards forced repatriation to Laos. DPA


-Source Today Newspaper/TodayOnline.com

Note : Sources indicates that the Thai military was conducting a headcount during the food distribution by MSF. The refugees refused the headcount as it is seen as a step towards their forced repatriation. A few groups resisted the headcount.

Khek Noi Public School is the first benificiary of Project Lives! shipment. With the school's assistance, we shortlisted a total of 473 needy pupils from destitute backgrounds. The school generously offered the assistance of all the teachers in our distribution project.

The goodie bag items :
- Shampoo & Conditioner & Moisturisers (Crabtree & Evelyn)
- 2 X Soap
- 1 X Toothbrush (Public collection & Habitat For Humanity)
- 1 X Toothpaste (Public collection & Habitat For Humanity)
- 1 X Towel
- 1 X Sling Bag from Starhub

Arrival at the school compounds

The students getting into line with the form teacher's assistance

A total of 473 bags were distributed.
(Some students could not make it for the photo session due to the exam period)

The happy faces

I have just returned to Phetchabun from our main office in Chiang Mai and my eyes are hardly open....

The drive was strenuous as we had to wait till close to 11pm last night before the vehicle was repaired. Our very first small green trusty old truck (or affectionately known as the FunVee) underwent its first major repair as many of the mechanical parts have given way due to wear and tear. The repair was extensive and took almost 4 days to complete.

Now coming back to the drive, the drive was 6 hours long from Chiang Mai to Phetchabun and I had to reach Khek Noi by 2pm for the destitute relief distribution at the public school. Working backwards, I had to set off at 7am to make good the schedule....

In a short while I'll post more pictures of the outreach we just completed at the public school to some 500 children from destitute families.