“Even when the streets are dirty and the sun is shining, everybody’s got a story to tell…”

I should start by telling you that each of these families have a story to tell. They’ve all gone through some sort of unimaginable hardship and have found themselves in a foreign country where they enjoy more safety, but must endure a host of other problems. The biggest issues stem from then being unable to legally work in Thailand and the constant threat of incarceration. Because of the sensitivity of the nature of their circumstance, I can’t provide all the heartbreaking details I’d like to share. We started with one family and before I knew it we had five. Over the past month or so we picked up two more and in the past week I began communicating with our EIGHTH family (anyone who thinks that’s not a lot can come volunteer to be my assistant). I suspect we will have another family before the end of the year and to help those of you who want to sponsor a specific family, I’ve given them a handful of generic last names below (all the need amounts listed below are monthly estimates, but any amount you give will be helpful). So far, the twitter community has been the most active in responding to my calls for help with resources and funds, so you’ll see many twitter accounts listed below.

The James

Widowed mother with three kids. The oldest is a teen aged girl and the younger two are a boy and girl that are grade school aged. They recently took the youngest boy to see a doctor because of persistent headaches. The doctor told the family that the headaches were a result of malnutrition.

Need: $100 (sponsored in October by Backpacking Matt & Adventurous Kate)

The Wades

Widowed mother with three kids. The oldest son is about seventeen and has two younger sisters (12 & 8). They were so relieved and excited to have their rent paid last month they quickly served Matt & Kate the woodapple juice they regularly drink. Eager to revisit the family, they told me they won’t however be rushing back for more juice.

Need: $100 (sponsored in October by Backpacking Matt & Adventurous Kate)

The Bryants

Imagine an episode of Full House in a studio apartment. This is a cramped household of seven. At least one family member has been diagnosed with a mental condition. The Bryants have a lot happening in so little space, still they get excited about having visitors and they’re more than grateful for the help we have been sending their way.

Need:  $40 (sponsored in October by Spunky Girl Monologues, Backpacking Matt & Adventurous Kate)

The Allens & The Iversons

These two families are two women who are sisters in law of each other. They both have husbands who are incarcerated indefinitely in a detention center. I first made contact with them after I began visiting one of their husbands and slowly uncovered more and more information on their lives, through some really rough use of Thai and lots of hand signals.

The Allens have 5 little girls. All of them are very shy, but are bright and playful if you can get through the fear they have of strangers.

Need: $70 (sponsored in Oct. & Nov. by Spunky Girl Monologues, @CraigGonzales, & Cindy Yang)

The Iversons live in cheap place and recently told me they didn’t have enough food for their two boys, one girl, and sickly grandmother. I mentioned it to some online friends and they responded pretty quickly.

Need: $35 (sponsored in October by @Nok_KN, @CraigGonzales)

The Johnsons & The Kidds

The final two families are in better condition than the others. This is mostly because of their ability to make friends and communicate their needs. Still both with small children, they often come short of making rent. I have paid rent for the Johnsons several times and sent help to the Kidds when needed, usually in return for their help finding, communicating with, and distributing goods to needy refugee families. Without their help, I wouldn’t be in contact with half of the families we’re supporting.

Need: $100 (sponsored Sept.-Nov. by @travellingmike96 @TenfaceBangkok @Chomchada)

“Even when the nights are quiet and the moon is rising, every face has some glory to sell…”

Earlier this month BAMBI (Bangkok’s Assoc. of Mothers & Babies) raised $500 specifically for these families. We will use this money and anything else we raise to make sure they have enjoyable holiday that they can celebrate without worrying about their money woes. Contact me to get involved and happy holidays.

-Dwight

The lyrics above are from a song I love by an artist named Nicolay’s song, Lose Your Way. A few photos are courtesy of Dew Napattaloong.

2 hours seems like such a small amount of time. It’s the amount of time we spend watching our favorite movie, or relaxing with friends at a favorite restaurant or pub. It’s a fraction of our day and we treat it as such. After all, it’s 2 hours. No big deal there, right?

During my 6 weeks in Thailand, three of which were spent in Bangkok, I learned the meaning of 2 hours. 2 hours was the amount of time it took me to see the struggles of refugee and asylum-seeking families. It was the amount of time it took for my heart to break 10 times over. It was the amount of time it took for my views and perceptions about Bangkok to change. It is the amount of time it took for me to decide that I need to reach out and help more than I have been.

There are a few thousand people in Bangkok who are refugees or seeking asylum from non neighboring countries. Refugees and asylum-seekers cannot work, which means they cannot earn money to support their families. That means that at any time there are hundreds of hungry bellies and innumerable worries and fears. People are hiding in their ‘homes’ and praying that the Thai police don’t find them and throw them into the IDC (Immigration Detention Center) where there is no release date in sight. They are sleep deprived because of the fear the these raids. Their children do not go to school or play outside with friends. They can rarely say with any certainty where their next meal will come from.

So, why are they in Thailand? They came to Thailand because it’s safer than their home country. In Thailand they fear being put into the crowded detention center’s jail, however, they do not fear being killed. Thus, Thailand becomes their perdition before having the chance at starting a new life in another country willing to accept refugees. Unfortunately, the process of receiving refugee status in Thailand is long and frustrating. Once they have refugee status, which can take as long as 2 years or more to obtain, it could be another 2 years before they are sent to a new country. We’re talking a miserable four years in the most optimistic cases. That is a long time to try and survive without being able to earn money. It’s 1,460 days of living one day at a time. It’s eating when you can and paying rent before feeding yourself and your family. It’s endless days of praying that someone will find you and help you.

In the time I spent with refugee and asylum-seeking families I had a hard time wrapping my head around their reality. How do they do it? I’m amazed by their faith and their resilience, but what choice do they have?

-Pam

Thanks to Pam for sharing her thoughts and being so willing to jump in wherever I sent her. In addition to visiting the detention center, I also had her visit the homes of a few families. There she made new friends, accessed their situation, and distributed some help we had for them. We’re doing more! This Saturday is the BAMBI Second Hand Fair where everything sold will go to help eight families survive the rest of the year.

[200,000] is the population of nine refugee camps on the Thai Burma border. This is also the same number of Burmese refugees, including ethnic Shan, believed to be living outside the camps in Thailand.

• Flashback to Chris’s tale of “Helping Nu Nu Help the Kids“ about visiting Nu Nu, who has given up resettlement in order to provide care for a growing number of orphans in at a refugee camp in Northern Thailand.

[100] is the estimated number of Burmese who are arrested daily and held in Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Center.

• Read “The Best Way To Go To Jail in Thailand“ for an account of being a volunteer visitor in a Bangkok jail.

It is estimated that [80%] of refugees are women and children.

• At the end of May I took a trip to Future Light Children’s home in Mae Sot that houses and educates forty-one children. Here are photos and video from the trip and more information on how you can get involved.

It only takes hearing from [ONE] friend who is a refugee to understand the impossible situations they have survived and become inspired to act.

• You may remember Ryan’s story of fleeing with his family to Thailand, where they lived for about four years before they were able to reach the US. Ryan recently received his GED and hopes to soon be living his dream of attending college.

Remember it costs about $15 to give a families food supplies that will last two weeks. Please take the time and make a donation that will allow us to support a family in need. Thanks and if you’re in Bangkok and want to join our event find out more here.

~Dwight

As people begin to examine what led to the events that brought Bangkok to a halt, some have correctly identified the role of charitable giving and volunteering in the country’s reconciliation. The cleanup effort that brought the multitudes of Thais and foreigners to the streets of Bangkok to wash the streets stained and charred with conflict helped many realize that any real reconciliation will take a much larger effort than what the government alone is capable of. Real change can happen if people don’t quickly forget this tragedy and begin to expand their concepts beyond “helping the poor” to beginning a conversation between Thais who (at least from the outside) appear to lead very different lives. This type of mindset is what gives teeth to grassroots movements like ‘Sanuk My Saturday‘ whose success is dependent on the ability to engage local Thais as active, regular participants.

While the volunteer teaching won’t begin until next weekend, I did have a chance to visit the detention center this past week. This was the first time I had been since returning from the US. As usual, it is always a healthy exercise in gratefulness. Because so many volunteers came we were able to visit many of the families I had gotten used to seeing before I left. Thanks to everyone who continues to visit and bring food, water, and companionship to them.

Finally, for everyone who expressed interest in the food supplies we sponsored for five refugee families this month, let me give more details. For about $15 per family they received rice, sugar, condensed milk, noodles, cooking oil and flour.  This is only a small way to help them and they still struggle to find other support. For the average family these supplies last about two weeks. Many of the families have already learned to forgo meat in their diets, scrounging to save what they can to pay rent, their biggest expense. So your donations do create small change that makes a big differences in their lives. Please continue to show your support for them so we can duplicate this effort in the future.

This weekend I’m writing from the Burmese border in Mae Sot, Thailand while visiting Future Light Children’s Home. Plenty of photos and details coming in next week’s update.

-Dwight

The waiting room is full and tense. There is a mixture or people from all backgrounds, packed together in a long but narrow corridor. They sit or stand shoulder to shoulder, but are worlds apart. I sit and hypothesize about that distance. Whether it’s the language barriers or the weight of solemn helplessness to aid loved ones that keeps people eerily quiet, I’m not sure. Then I sit and reflect on a few scenes I just witnessed coming in that seem to indicate the latter. A stream of shirtless, handcuffed Burmese men waiting with heavy eyes. Giant paddy wagons parked outside used in raids to arrest the people–our people–or people like them anyway.

“They sit or stand shoulder to shoulder, but are worlds apart.”

The paper work is done. And not a moment too soon, my sulking is abruptly interrupted by yelling in Thai. I understand and jump to my feet with the others. The command is followed by something broken and harsh, resembling English. I handover my passport for a locker key and crush my belongings inside. No camera and no phones is emphasized in the Thai commands over the importance of no metal or sharp objects. Is any connection to the outside a threat? I swallow that thought while they pat me down and carelessly molest the packages of food I’ve brought. Hands are waved and I wander over to the portable fence.

“I loathe this fence.”

Some of the detainees are already out and the searching and murmuring escalates. There is another row of port-o-fences partitioning the detainees from our fence with a meter or so in between, that at first impression seems to be a mile. The rest is a dysfunctional airport scene. Some elation, greetings, and smiles. The volume of the people shouting between the fences intensifies.

I loathe this fence.

It separates people in a different way than when we were outside. It is the physical personification of the same solemn helplessness I felt then. Damned fence. It doesn’t save me from the obvious desperation of the people on the other side, the heat of the sun, nor the stench from the toilets in the nearby cells.

I press my fingers through the fence and lean on it because I can see her now. “Mr. Noname!” she shouts.

I reply, “Happy Birthday.”

“Today there were enough volunteers to reunite her whole family during the visiting hour. We’re proud.”

She’s been here since the raids last October. Only a few months ago she was a regular attendant of the Saturday morning classes at the Bangkok Refugee Center, practicing her English with me, quizzing the other volunteers about the US, and teaming up with her friends to guess my name. When they couldn’t pry it out of me I was dubbed Mr. Noname. Today there were enough volunteers to reunite her whole family during the visiting hour. We’re proud.

Her smile is noticeably bigger than mine. She’s a teenager today. The other volunteers gather around the fence on our side. I glance around self consciously. Back to the dysfunctional airport scene. Back to the sign behind me that reads, “Don’t trow anything.” And finally, back to the fence. I join the others in crooning the happy birthday song through it. Later, they point over to the food supplies we brought, including bottled water and birthday cupcakes freshly smushed from the search.

The time is up. We wave goodbye to the beaming new teenager. I leave ashamed a little for comparing her birthday to ones I had. Or maybe from being unable to fully mirror her beautiful smile. But I’m thankful and positive–there’s no better way I could have spent my morning.

Join

This is just one of the many stories from the visits we’re making to IDC. It was built to temporarily house foreigners and migrants who overstayed visas or found themselves on the wrong side of Thai law. Thus it can often be quite crowded, without all the amenities of a normal prison. Many refugee families who are arrested end up there regardless of their status with the UN and with little recourse. Twice a week volunteers gather to visit, reunite the families, and bring supplies. Please consider donating or visiting with us while you’re in Bangkok.

Here’s a quote from Ryan who had to stay there a week before his family was resettled to the US:

“In IDC, people are short of everything…. They need most basic supplies, such as carbohydrates, vitamins, drinking water, and hygiene necessities. I know it’s gonna be really hard for yourself to make much different in these people’s life, but with more people actively involving in your program, I believe a lot of people’s life will be better.”

Other Good Ways to Go to Jail

There are other groups going into prisons and providing services to inmates. For example, the Christian Prison Ministry Foundation works with prisoners nearing release. In addition to giving religious guidance to inmates, they provide a series of educational classes to prepare participants to succeed once reintegrated back into society. CPMF is doing everything from art classes to running a halfway house for inmates. Get involved by volunteering to share a skill, especially if you have an interest in helping people rebuild their lives.

Get Uncomfortable

I understand that for many, visiting jails and detention centers aren’t the types of attractions you normally think of when you’re planning your trip to Thailand. I sure didn’t. But when you get in the habit of making yourself available to serve others, you’ll learn to love the adventure that is packaged with making a difference in people’s lives.

-Dwight

Note: This isn’t an exhaustive list by far, as I have only included organizations I have personally worked with.

Sanuk My Saturday – Saturdays – Pinklao/Yommarat

This is the ISOS project teaching English in the slum that you’ve been hearing so much about the last few weeks. I’m trying to round up support for the project which we have expanded to a second location last weekend. For those unfamiliar, you can donate, sign up to volunteer, or read more about what we’re doing in last week’s update.

Little Light Project – Monthly – Victory Monument

Little Light is a special program for students at the Bangkok School for the Blind that encourages them to reach for their hopes and dreams with activities challenging the students to interact and discuss with volunteers. Join the LLP group to get updates and invitations to the sessions. Meet a few of the children in this brief video:

Friends for All Children – M-F – Samsen

FFAC is a home for orphaned infants and toddlers who hope to be adopted. Volunteers are encouraged to come spend time with kids during the week. If you survive feeding and changing time the overwhelming cuteness of these kids will keep you coming back. Visit the FFAC site for more.

SSS Foundation – M-F – Sukumvit 71

Hop off the BTS and a short taxi ride later you’re in a group of buildings used for the recreation and education of many of Bangkok’s children with special needs. Long term volunteers are preferred and will have the opportunity to aide the center with a variety of tasks from teaching English to physical therapy. More in [English] or [Thai]

IDC Visits - Mornings, M-F, Soi Suan Plu

Last year many ISOS volunteers who had been helping at Bangkok’s Refugee Center began getting more involved with visiting the Immigration Detention Center after raids on refugees resulted in many of our students being detained indefinitely. For every volunteer who joins, we are allowed to call one detainee and we use this to allow separated families to spend a few moments together. Volunteers are usually gathered twice a week and bring food, water, and other supplies to the families. See the volunteer page to get involved.

“Dream Big, Work Smart, Start Local.”

-Dwight