Baan Dada Children's Home

I finally arrive at in Sangklaburi around 4:30 pm on Monday, October 5! Hassle-free bus, unbelievable! Maddy (a MediaKids teacher in Ang Thong), her boyfriend Kachi (from Nigeria), and Heidi and Ben (from Australia) pick me up in Sangklaburi with the Baan Dada truck. We have dinner and stock up on supplies (toilet paper, bug spray, coffee packets, snacks, water bottle, etc.). 15-20 minute drive to Huay Ma Lai village (in Sangklaburi, Kanchanaburi province - western Thailand, next to the Myanmar/ Burma border). I finally arrive at Baan Dada Children's Home around 7:30 pm, and am welcomed by loads of loving hugs.

Baan Dada Children's Home and Community Services is a project of the Neo-Humanist Foundation, a non-profit organization that believes in love for all things in the universe. In such, all the meals served at Baan Dada are veagan. They are absolutely delicious. I never thought I could fall in love with so many different types of tofu dishes, including fried tofu!

Baan Dada is home to about 60 children, most of Karen background. Karen and Mon people are minority ethnic groups who are being persecuted in Burma, and fleeing to Thailand, where they are not given full Thai citizenship rights. They live in villages and refugee camps along the Burma/ Thai border, including Huay Ma Lai village, home to Baan Dada. Many, not all, of these children do have families, of some sort or another. Their families are in no condition to take care of the children, as they struggle to even feed themselves. Many come from refugee camps or surrounding and far away Mon/ Karen/ Burmese villages that live day to day.

To find out more (both about Baan Dada and how to sponsor a child), visit: http://baandada.org/.

One of the many things I loved about Baan Dada was the self-sustaining projects the home keeps up both for itself and the surrounding communities. For example, they have a goat lending project. In such, goats are lent to villages for breeding purposes, and then returned. The village gets to keep the goat, a source of food and material. Baan Dada also has a weaving project, in which a "mother" and some of the older kids weave (old loom style) bags, shirts and shawls - and sell them to volunteers, web site visitors and in the market. The children make bookmarks and cards, which are also sold. Visit the web site for more information.

Below are some (of many many) photos of Baan Dada and the smiling faces at Baan Dada. I could go on forever, but I'll leave the rest up to Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/Lia.Brezavar/BaanDadaChildrenSHome#

Cholele and Sirichai at the river. "Going to the river" was a popular event that occurred every couple of days, weather and truck availability permitting.

Me with Nache on my lap and Malai behind. I stayed about 10 days, though I wished I could've stayed longer, and plan on going back in the near future.


Baan Dada also sells items at the market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I went to help out on Thursday late afternoon, along with Heidi, Wahlawhutt, Johnny, Harrish and Dada 2. When we arrived in Sangklaburi, it was pouring rain. So we had to wait it out. Just as it cleared up, we set up the stall and mats, laid out the goods and beckoned villagers to come buy. We sell everything from clothes to cards to trinkets to notebooks to paintings to hair ties to bracelets to stuffed animals to children's toys and dolls to everything that we at home might call "junk". All clothing is 10 baht. I loved this experience - being on the other side of the market stall.

In the midst of a dodgeball-like game, Pitu and Onsinai smile for the much-sought after camera:

Below is a photo of Ehdodo. She is one of the pre-schoolers. Every day at 10:00 am, we volunteers run pre-school class for two hours with about 10 children. I believe Ehdodo will enter Prattom (lower school) next year.

Here is Nadoo with a fruit peel mask.

Below is a photo of Dada 2. There are two Dadas, because "Dada" actually means brother in Sanskrit. Dada 1 and Dada 2 both came to Baan Dada through the Neo-Humanist Foundation. They are placed in their assignments. Dada 1, who has been here for about 9 years, maybe more, (Baan Dada opened in 1994 as a boys' home only), is originally from the Philippines. Dada 2, who has been at Baan Dada for about a year, is originally from Malaysia. They both practice meditation and love for all things in the universe. They also don't speak Thai. In fact, many of the children, being from ethnic minority groups and from Burma, don't speak Thai either, which as you can imagine, makes it very difficult for them in school. In addition to volunteers teaching them English (such as I did), they also have a Thai teacher that comes to Baan Dada. However, the little ones speak English quite well - better, in fact, than my 12 year old students at Sri Racha School. They are surrounded by the Dadas and volunteers, so are therefore surrounded by English. Some of the older children are fluent in multiple languages: English, Thai, Karen 1 and Karen 2, Burmese -- such as Harrish - the unofficial Baan Dada translator. He's one of the older boys and has resided at Baan Dada for most of his life. Oh, and now... here's the picture of Dada 2:

Malae (pronounced Mah-la-A) is an extremely happy child. She is often seen hugging and kissing volunteers, singing and dancing to anything and everything, and always asking for "school". She loves school. And she loves the "Go, Banana" song, that I taught the pre-schoolers. I learned, from volunteers that are still at Baan Dada from when I was there, that my "banana" song has lived on, and they even heard the local farmer humming the tune one day.

Namfon/ Nosoree. Just like many of my students, some of the children have two names/ nicknames.

On one of our trips to the river, I came across this man bathing his dog, who is in total dog heaven. First off, this would have been something to capture regardless, but secondly, in Thailand!?! - where dogs are often treated like ratty pests.

On that same day, here is our tractor load full of children heading back to Baan Dada from the river. Ben, from Australia, who stayed at Baan Dada for a month with his girlfriend Heidi, is sitting in the middle. Other than this tractor, Baan Dada has only one mode of transportation - a truck that was donated by Dr. Friedrich Henning of Norway a few years back. The truck acts as a supply truck, a school bus, a market truck, to the river truck, etc.

During my stay, Dr. Friedrich Henning, a Norwegian optometrist, came to Baan Dada through Unite for Sight - a global NGO, whose name speaks for itself. He spent everyday in various ethnic minority villages giving free eye-check ups and glasses. For many of the villages, it is the first eye-check up they have had in years. I went along to help out with Deirdre, another volunteer from Ireland, and Dada 2. At first, Deidre and I were "game show hosts" pointing to the eye chart to check for long-distance vision, as in the photo below. But, then, after a crash course in optometry, we switched places with Dada 2 and Dr. Henning. I was checking for cataracts and fitting near-sighted and far-sighted lenses!! Dr. Henning had picked up loads of glasses in Bangkok before he came. We were only able to provide down to -3.0 and up to +3.0. We were unable to fit varied distances, so I also had to check for the dominant eye, as that is what we fitted the lenses for. An eye surgeon from Chiang Mai will be here in a few months to do cataract surgery one after another for those who are almost completely blind. Unfortunately, due to human, financial and material resources and time, we were only able to make eligible those that were almost completely blind in both eyes. If there was a full cataract in one eye, and the other didn't make the cut-off point, they just have to wait until the 'good' eye completely goes. Below is a photo of the Karen village we went to, with Dr. Henning in plad on left with villager and translator, and Dada 2 on the right in yellow with villager and translator.

Here I am pointing to the letters on the eye chart. All the letters are either "E" (facing left or right), "W" or "M", so that the villagers can just use their fingers, as they don't know the letters.

On my last day, we took the children on a walk to a store in Huay Ma Lai village. We allowed them each to buy one thing of their choice. The majority chose ramen noodle packets, and ate it dry on the way back.

Baan Dada really tries to focus on each child's interests and needs. Some children are more inclined towards music, some towards art, some towards language, some towards engineering, etc. Children can learn weaving, take music lessons (they have a full music room with keyboard, drums and guitars), take singing and dancing lessons, etc. Below is a photo of the dance class. The children beat the bamboo sticks to a specific rhythm, while the four corner children hopped in and out to a dancing beat. There was a singer and a musician who used a drumstick and a wooden board to further the beat.

Baan Dada has 4 "mothers" who do everything from looking after the children to cooking, cleaning and laundry. On the left and the right are two of the "mothers". In the middle is Siema, a medic who recently came to Baan Dada from Burma.

My farewell. Here are the volunteers that were at Baan Dada at the time of my leaving, from left to right: Ben (from Australia), Yogev (from Israel), me, Heidi (from Australia), Deirdre (from Ireland), Anna and Kim (both from Belgium). From left to right, the children are Daetu, Mongkon, Sutida and Prickadee. The Baan Dada truck is in the background.