Go here now and donate. “A cheap restaurant meal in Thailand costs only about a dollar,” so skip lunch today and pay it forward. Even $5 is enough to make a change.
From Carrien at “She Laughs at the Days”:
A few months back my brother in law met a man in northern Thailand who used to be a member of the Shan Resistance Army. (Think the guide in Rambo 4.) They basically tried to protect themselves from the Burmese army who periodically would surround a village with heavy artillery and give them two hours to hand over all of their food, all of their pigs, and all of their women or they would open fire on everyone. This man, Chala, is now on the Thai side of the border. He took my brother in law through the jungle and showed him all of the places where he used to hide. Now he uses his knowledge to find kids in the jungle.
You may be wondering why exactly would he be wandering through the jungle along the border and looking for kids? Because they are there to find. They are usually orphans, they have been running to get away from the Burmese army. They have escaped and often witnessed the deaths of entire villages before they could get away. They head for the Thai border where they know they will be safe. Chala finds them and takes them in. He feeds them and gives them a place to sleep. Right now he has more than 40 kids. He’s had to move them several times because he keeps running out of money. He does all this out of his own pocket. I get to figure out how to help him help them.
Right now he’s only able to worry about keeping them alive, but there will be more to consider in the coming years. Ultimately they will need school and counseling and job training. They will need someone to help them grow up. They need someone to love them right now. They are excruciatingly poor. They sleep on a floor and eat whatever is cheapest to buy. It would take so little by our standards to take care of them properly. When we get to Thailand next year we are going to start with helping these kids. We may take some of them into our home in Chiang Mai if it will help in the long run.
In a few weeks we’ll have the site up and anyone who wants to donate toward helping Chala and those kids will be able to do so. My husband will be meeting him the last week of August and will hand deliver any thing you give to him when he gets there.
Be the change. You can change the lives of people you’ve never met who live on the other side of the world.
