A Report from the Thailand Outreach Program

- By: Julian Taylor - Year 11 | 2018 College Vice Captain

"On Behalf of ‘Thailand Group 2’ I would like to extend our gratitude to the

school and parish communities whose acts of generosity have enabled

something great. We went to Thailand with a single goal to build a kitchen,

we returned having fulfilled much more.

It was the GENEROSITY OF THIS COMMUNITY that has given each of those

kids 2 pairs of shoes.

It was the GENEROSITY OF THIS COMMUNITY that fixed their van and

gave them clean water.

And it was the GENEROSITY OF THIS COMMUNITY which filled our

empty structure with pots and pans so that they could eat…..

We went to Thailand to share our labour,

but you allowed us to go there and share our love".

BY: Julian Taylor - 2018 College Vice Captain

It truly was an experience of a lifetime, being able to go to a foreign land and help a foreign people, all on the principals of Lasallian charity. On 16 September ten Year 11 students and four teachers from St Bede’s College travelled to rural Thailand on the annual outreach program. Our mission was to go to the Parmenie Lasallian school in Sangklaburi and complete a building project. For us this project was a brand new kitchen facility. The project cost a total of $16,000 dollars and was fully funded by St Bede’s College annual ‘Mission Action Day’ fundraiser.

The boys partaking in the trip were:

Joseph Fiddes
Indo Heppell
Caiseal Kelly
Gerard Kelly
Dawit McNeish
Zekiel Mitchell
Jackson Murphy
Tom Pinnuck-Alonso
Julian Taylor
Kye Worland

Supervising Staff:

Walter Saluni
Nicki Bouwmeester
Kaylene Menara
Ryan Mravljak

We arrived after 20 hours in transit at the La Salle school. Amidst the torrential downpour we were welcomed by Brothers Matthew, Phillip and Victor who gave us a brief tour of the humble campus before introducing us to the children we would soon become best friends with. Thirty-two orphan children live in the school and are cared for by the brothers and staff. Their ages ranged from 5 to 16 and they were the most loving and wonderful children we had ever seen. Their were smiles so bright that it masked their tragic stories of abandonment and neglect.

Some of the children were left for dead by their families, others had endured the death of their parents, and a few cases were the result of voluntary orphaning, where they had to abandon poor living conditions for an education. If the brothers hadn’t told us we never would have known. From the beginning to the end, the laughter, smiles, hugs and joy never stopped. Our mere presence had given them a break from an otherwise harsh reality, and in seeing this we were more motivated than ever to give back to them.

In addition to our intimate relationships formed with the orphans, we also had the privilege of meeting the 400+ school children who attended the school during the day. Since our kitchen was to serve as a catering facility for all of these children, it gave us all the more reason to fight through the pain and get the job done.

We spent a total of 10 days on the worksite, from 8:30am to 4:00pm (apart from lunch) digging, mixing, cutting, twisting and stacking to achieve our goal. Conditions were tough and the work was physically draining but the worksite’s location among the playful children kept us motivated with a constant reminder of why we were there.

We had ample opportunity to bond with the children over the duration of our trip. One such experience was the daily bus routes to transport the children to and from school. I use the word bus for lack of a better term, because their school buses were simply flatbed trucks with a cage fitted to the back. None the less they were practical, and the school children could not have been happier than to sing songs and play thumb wars while riding the “bus.” We also embraced our inner musician qualities with our rendition of the Thai cultural song “Loy Loy Kratong” which we sang as part of our eventual farewell.

Years from now, if you ask any of my fellow volunteers which moment they cherish most, I can almost guarantee they will tell stories of our free time spent with the children. After school and on the weekends labouring took a backseat, as we got to give the children what they desired most - friendship. We brought scores of toys and craft materials from Australia to give to the children, but their preferences would always be to interact with us. Such acts of compassion are truly humbling. Children with close to nothing can make you feel so special, this will surely stay with we boys for the rest of our lives.

Prior to our trip, previous volunteers and staff told us of the extreme levels of love and compassion we would experience, they all also voiced their regret of not taking more things to donate. Anticipating a similar feeling our group set about fundraising to maximise our giving capacity. We finally decided on selling wristbands and asking the catholic community for donations. Our four week wristband campaign had a total revenue of $456 and St Louis Parish in Aspendale Gardens generously donated $1,267.85 over two masses. Our St Bede’s College budget surplus added $444 to our total. This gave us a total value of $2,168.67 to spend exclusively on bettering the lives of the children.

Here is How we Spent the Fundraised Money:

PRICES ARE QUOTED IN CURRENCIES OF: AUD $ + Thai BAHT ฿

ITEMS:

~ 64 Pairs of Shoes for Children (2 Each) - AUD$640 - Thai ฿ 15,360.00

~ 64 Pairs of Socks for the Children (2 Each) -AUD $82.50 - Thai ฿ 1,980.00

~ JBL Speaker for the Bamboo School - AUD$274.58 - Thai ฿ 6,590.00

~ Replacing Broken Headlights on Bus - AUD$8.33 - Thai ฿ 200.00

~ Food For Remote Village (15 Families) - AUD$46.17 - Thai ฿ 1,108.00

~ Fully furnishing the Kitchen with Pots, Pans & Utensils - AUD$283.33 - Thai ฿ 6,800.00

~ Full Restoration of the School’s Transport Van - AUD$542.08 - Thai ฿ 13,010.00

~ Water Filtration System for Kitchen and School - AUD$291.67 - Thai ฿ 7,000.00

~ TOTAL = AUD $2,168.67 - Thai ฿52,048.00

Read the full extent of our experiences on our blog: https://thailandoutreach2017.wordpress.com/

Also Check out the Previous group’s experience: https://stbedesoutreach2017.wordpress.com/

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