New Life Outreach

Yesterday, we brought the streetkids out to distribution food to the destitute families. It was a radical move as these streetkids are well known among the villagers.

Yesterday when we asked them if they wanted to help the poor. They immediately jumped up and offered to help carry the stuff and join us.

Normally, our village outreach would be rather sober. But this round with these boys around, its kinda.... different. They pounced all over the house, pat the dog, climb trees, talked loudly.

But somehow, it still touched the villagers when these hyperactive children gave the dried noodles to the villagers. Towards the end of every visit, we got the streetkids to pray for the destitute families and you could see tears just welling in the eyes of these destitue elderly.

So who says that broken lives cannot make differences ?

For a whole week, we have been spending time with the streetkids and it has been most encouraging. The young ones are slowing getting accustomed to us and starting to accept us.

For a couple of days, Chay (Aka James) remained extremely quiet and did not really talk much. We knew something was wrong and we just waited for him to open up.

One day, Chay came back to us sobbing at night and told us that every night when he went home, its empty and he missed his father giving him a hug. Most nights, his mother would be out and leave him to find food himself and he would go hungry.

We sheltered him and told him that he has a family with us and we offered to let him stay with us for as long as he needs. Today, we start to see smiles on his face again.

Lieng & Gau

Gau (12) and Lieng(10) grew up in a troubled family whereby both their parents would not get along. Many nights, his mother would run away from the house leaving the father as the sole breadwinner to take care of the children.

Their father went through a traumatic time in his marriage and was severely depressed. One day the boys woke up to find that their father had committed suicide by eating pesticide.

Both children are now under the care of their paternal grandparents, however they too have little to give to these children. On normal days, the children will live off rice, water and fish sauce to fill their little tummies.

Personal Note :

Gau is a young and brilliant boy. Although he is mischievous, I see a good spark in him. I’ve seen several times when other boys bully his brother, he would stand up and defend his younger brother even when he gets insulted to the point of tears.

Despite going through so much in life, Gau maintains a positive outlook in life.

Personal Note :

Lieng is a simple 10 year old who is always smiling. Behind his charming smile hides a shy boy. This boy although young, but has been involved in much bad company leading him to glue sniffing and other vices.

Lieng may not be as brilliant as his older sibling, but he has a teachable heart which is always willing to listen to correction. In fact, he’s always the first to arrive for lessons wanting so much to learn.

Each child cost SGD78 to sponsor. If you are keen on sponsoring either child, please email me at eugene@radion-international.org

Chay

Chay is a quiet 14 year old and just last year Chay’s father drowned while fishing leaving him with his mother. His mother is a farmer and does not have regular income, many times Chay has to go hungry and without food.

Chay told us that he wants to go to school, but is frequently discouraged by his own mother about the need to study. After repeated discouragements, he dropped out of school and was involved in a street gang where glue sniffing and petty theft is common.

Personal Note :

Chay is one of the most honest streetkids I have encountered. When apprehended on a wrong behavior, Chay is almost always the first to admit his mistakes and take corrective actions. This little boy stirred our heart when he told us that the people at Radion are sincerely concerned about his welfare and he wants to grow up to be a useful person.

In our encounters with Chay, he shows signs of a reformed character and many times offering to help in chores while other kids go out to play. Sometimes the children will ask me to buy water guns for the Songkran festival and when I explained that it was expensive, Chay would be the first to hold my hand and tell me “Pee Eugene, its ok… lets go.. its expensive”

To Sponsor Chay - email eugene@radion-international.org entitled Chay

Beang on the right

Beang is a cheerful 13 year old who was orphaned 6 years ago when his whole family went missing, leaving him with his elderly grandmother.

His grandmother makes a living as a farmer and does not make enough to make ends meet, many times Beang and his brother goes without food. Most days, he gets only plain rice which he adds water in help fill his tummy.

2 years ago, his grandmother asked him to quit school as they can no longer afford to send him to school and since then, Beang learn to live off the streets, picking bottle caps and selling them. Hoping to to buy food. He learnt to live off the streets and in the process was addicted to glue sniffing.

When we asked if he has ever stolen, he was quiet for a moment and he replied yes. He told us that he stole soap from a provision stall to bring back home as his grandmother could not afford to buy soap. He quickly replied that he has not stolen since he joined our streetkids program, he said that he did not want to disappoint us and wanted to have an opportunity to study. He dreams to be a pastor someday.

Personal Note :

Dear friends and supporters,

We've just spoken to our 5 streetkids and they hope to return to school!

That’s the good news.

Here's the bad news. As you know all these children come from broken families or orphaned, which means that the families can hardly support these children from going to school.

Don't get me wrong, the school fees and medical in Thailand is free(as opposed to what many NGOs say) but here is the reality. These children need to eat, they need basics to live like any normal students.

I’ve broken down the costing for your reference. This is the actual amount which is needed. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’ll be putting up a small campaign for child sponsorship where our sponsors can opt for a one year commitment to rebuild the dreams of these little ones.

If you are keen to support a child, please email me at eugene@radion-international.org

Throughout the trip, I noticed that these streetkids were stuffing themselves with food whenever we had meals. Some of these small boys would eat something like 3-4 plates of food, this of course blew our excursion budget, but thats all good. :)

I asked my staff what was happening and this is what they found out.

These children back at home would only have simple meals (ie rice and water) and they have never had such good food. In their little minds, they would gobble up as much as possible as they do not know when will they ever get such food again or when will their next meal be.