Into TGL: Armelle’s Experience at the Orphanage in Thailand
June 12, 2016
The Green Lion
Armelle Couvreur, from France, recounts her experience at working in the orphanage in Thailand for two weeks.
I worked during two weeks at this orphanage.
It welcomes the children of the mountains tribes, ethnic minorities such as Akha, Hmong, Lisu etc. The children of refugees were born in Thailand but do not have the Thai nationality because the jus soli does not exist in Thailand. It is the impossible dilemma of the refugees here…
At the beginning, the orphanage was only managed by the monks of the temples all around but, it didn’t stop getting bigger, so associations now help it for the realization of various projects. Today, the orphanage has 270 children, girls and boys.
The project during my visit was, among others, the construction of a paving stone at the level of the place where the children aired their clothes. With 270 children, I let you imagine the ton of clothes to hang up…
Then to pour a paving stone to f Sri Udom Orphanage. It is not difficult, you just needs good muscles and a good dose of motivation (those whom all the volunteers did not have in my big despair! :))
Step 1: transport the bags of cement, buckets sand and stones
Step 2: mix half a bag of cement + 8 buckets of sand + 6 buckets of pebbles + water + some elbow grease!
Step 3: decant the mixture to pour the paving stone by hand, of course. And also are needed good muscles!
Pwan was the chief to pour the paving stone, he was a sacred help!
We also contributed in:
- painting some walls with lively colors
- building a wall in toilets to avoid that the dust of the factory of bricks situated just behind do not make dirty them
- to fill with one engraved the location of the old toilets which were destroyed
- to give English courses to the nurse
- to wash every morning the bedding so that every week 270 beds are clean
After the work, we spent time with the children during their spare time (after the courses and before the shower and the meal). Both songs, one in honor of king and the other one in honor of Buddha, than children to sing all in heart (magnificent moment!) spelled the end of our day.
rely appreciated to work beside Pwan and Joe, two nice big-hearted coordinators of Sri Udom Orphanage. I admire their commitment, always with a smile whatever happens, to improve the everyday life of all these children and I invite you to participate in it too if the adventure tempts you!
*** This post was originally written by Armelle for her blog and she kindly let us use it here. If you want to dig into more of her adventures around the world, check out her blog here.***
