I recently got back from a long-planned trip to Thailand where I provided a four-year college scholarship to a young lady who will now attend nursing school. The kids involved are desperately poor members of rural, tribal communities that, without assistance, would receive minimal/no education and continue to (barely) live as subsistence farmers.
I was hoping Lan and Lily could come with me, but their medical mission to Honduras overlapped this event. Maybe the timing will be such that we can all go next year. Lan has her charitable causes, which I support, but I've wanted to find something for myself. I have found it, and I look forward to participating in this effort for the rest of my life.
As I've mentioned previously, I have friend of a friend who has lived in Thailand for several years and started posting YouTube videos on life as an expat. The focus of Chris's videos changed with COVID. For a couple of years, Thailand was shut down. And since tourists are a major part of the economy, the absence of tourists meant a lot of people were without work and, therefore, food and the means to support themselves. Chris then decided to take his YouTube money and distribute it to the locals. It was his way to “pay it forward.” His followers on YouTube asked to contribute, and before long, Chris was doing bigger and bigger projects. He went into the slums of Bangkok to give food, supplies, and money to the residents there. He started organizing food and supply convoys – distributing a warehouse full of goods – to orphanages in the north and homes for disabled children in the south and on Koh Samui. He even teamed up with an Aussie who owns a tour boat company to get food and supplies to locals on the more remote islands.
Chris’s work with the orphanages put him in contact with a long-standing charity called the iCare Thailand Foundation. Michael is from Norway, and his parents moved to Thailand when Michael was a child. His parents founded iCare over 40 years ago, and now Michael runs the charity.
We drove to the Wat Sa Keo orphanage and school on Saturday morning. There are nearly two thousand kids who live here.
So many children.
I was hoping Lan and Lily could come with me, but their medical mission to Honduras overlapped this event. Maybe the timing will be such that we can all go next year. Lan has her charitable causes, which I support, but I've wanted to find something for myself. I have found it, and I look forward to participating in this effort for the rest of my life.
As I've mentioned previously, I have friend of a friend who has lived in Thailand for several years and started posting YouTube videos on life as an expat. The focus of Chris's videos changed with COVID. For a couple of years, Thailand was shut down. And since tourists are a major part of the economy, the absence of tourists meant a lot of people were without work and, therefore, food and the means to support themselves. Chris then decided to take his YouTube money and distribute it to the locals. It was his way to “pay it forward.” His followers on YouTube asked to contribute, and before long, Chris was doing bigger and bigger projects. He went into the slums of Bangkok to give food, supplies, and money to the residents there. He started organizing food and supply convoys – distributing a warehouse full of goods – to orphanages in the north and homes for disabled children in the south and on Koh Samui. He even teamed up with an Aussie who owns a tour boat company to get food and supplies to locals on the more remote islands.
Chris’s work with the orphanages put him in contact with a long-standing charity called the iCare Thailand Foundation. Michael is from Norway, and his parents moved to Thailand when Michael was a child. His parents founded iCare over 40 years ago, and now Michael runs the charity.
We drove to the Wat Sa Keo orphanage and school on Saturday morning. There are nearly two thousand kids who live here.
So many children.
